‘Parallel Lines’ is the group's third and easily best album. The album didn't take off until the group released the song of the album Heart of Glass as, a single. The album is indisputably one of the great, classic albums of the rock and roll era. It is a creative and commercial masterpiece by Blondie. The album spawned several successful singles, where punk-meets-disco chart-topping hit Heart of Glass, and the top 40 hit the jerky One Way or Another, that made Blondie founded by singer Debbie (Deborah) Harry, Clem Burke’s drumming and guitarist Chris Stein overnight sensations.

With veteran producer Mike Chapman at the helm for this album, it was nevertheless Debbie Harry's come-hither vocals and Clem Burke's powerhouse drumming that really made the band attain the power of the pop – punk scene.

The other pieces that tied together the album as whole were the muscular cover of The Nerves' Hanging On The Telephone, Picture This, I'm Gonna Love You Too, Sunday Girl  cemented the American band’s success instantly.

Going into the details of the topper Heart of Glass, we see it’s a mating of Kraftwerk and Donna Summer that adds humanity to the machinelike pace and steeliness to the imploring female narrator. The other pick up line was where she won’t take any more abuse without showing contempt for her abusers comes in her gritty “I’m gonna getcha” (in One Way or Another).

Often labeled as new wave, Blondie were actually part of the New York punk rock scene of the 1970s; they were just another band playing in a club that was a gathering place for punkers. But that changed when they went into the studio and took a song they had a hard time getting to work (Once I Had a Love) and tried to rework it. After numerous arguments and creative struggle, the song was almost completely changed and renamed Heart of Glass. The rest is history; Debbie Harry became a fashion icon without even trying, and Blondie became part of a new wave of bands that were grossly mislabeled as new wave.

‘Parallel Lines’ established Blondie as major stars and even today you can tune in and love this 70s band for what it gave us and more.

Genre: Rock

Label: Capitol

Release date: September 1978

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira