The operative question when considering making a remix album is Why? There should be a point to reconstructing songs, even if the idea is just to provide a new context and a chance to dance.
Unfortunately, there seems little point to this remix project: most of the new settings are so ordinary that they hardly qualify as another context in which to hear the songs. As might be expected with a lack-lustre project, the most agreeable pieces are those composed from Blondie's most dance-oriented songs, "Heart of Glass" (Ritchie Jones Club Mix) and "Atomic" (Diddy's 12" Mix).
The project reveals its potential in the final track, a Black Dog remix of "Fade Away and Radiate" that is light and airy - very different from the boring, leaden house mixes that pervade the rest of the album. The mix takes only the eerie keyboard from the original, putting them in a fast-paced beat lattice along with Deborah Harry's vocals. The melody and atmosphere somehow emerge from the new mix intact - the context is completely different from the brooding original but works. Alas, this is the only such success.
Remixing Blondie in run-of-the-mill house style admits defeat, as if the evergreen melodies will have to be remade in contemporary style every few years in order to maintain their appeal. Commercial dance music is the most consistently disposable form of popular music; part of what made Blondie so engaging (especially insofar as the band is still engaging) was their ability to incorporate some dance elements while maintaining timeless qualities associated with the best pop and rock music.
Most awkward of all is "One Way or Another" (Damien's Supermarket Mix), which is anchored by a sample of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams." This is truly horrible stuff; at least a remix project can seek to avoid a greatest-hits-of-the-80s pastiche.
These remixes show the weakest side of contemporary house and dance, where beats (and unoriginal ones at that) have long since outstripped any accompanying melody. Grafting vocals from familiar songs is no solution to this problem. Instead, the organizers should have considered the innovative nature of the originals and sought to duplicate that again today. Remixes of Primal Scream by Sabres of Paradise and Portishead, or of Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion by U.N.K.L.E., are more representative of innovative hybrids of dance and rock than anything on remixed remade remodeled, and Blondie, of all bands, certainly deserves to be at this vanguard rather than wallowing in mediocrity.
