Considering that the 33 1/3 series have already focused on the Velvet Underground and Nico, Marquee Moon, Horses, The Ramones, Blank Generation, Daydream Nation and Fear of Music, I would have expected that the New York punk movement to be exhausted and in a way a lot of the material in this volume has been said before.
Instead on focusing on the album, as such, McLeod discusses the infiltration of disco and pop with punk and how Parallel Lines was one of the pioneering albums to do so. Also McLeod’s back history of Blondie is pretty detailed and makes interesting reading. Really this book is enriching the material of the past New York punkcentric 33 1/3 volumes.
What will make things more interesting is that soon we’ll get a modern update of the scene as the LCD Soundsystem book is on the horizon and we’ll be getting the Modern Lovers book in a month or so as Jonathan Richman has been mentioned a lot.
This review was originally on Goodreads
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