New Wave Giants Ballot from Flava

Username: flavasavavandal

Album: Parallel Lines: Blondie opens up the album with hit after hit and then just slowly forget how to make the songs connect on visceral levels. There is also a feminist streak that runs through this album I really appreciate, especially with the way it plays and flips gender roles like on Hanging on the Telephone or One Way Or Another. Pretty great shit!

Hanging on the Telephone: 10 Zara didn’t sound this down bad last month

One Way Or Another: 11 a staple of classic rock that holds up a lot better than the other big single from Parallel Lines with its jagged guitar and sense of neverending determination. Also contains the best hook on the album

Picture This: 9.5

Fade Away and Radiate: 10 ugh slow-burn vibe that ends with a tinge of reggae, how did you know this is what I needed Blondie

Pretty Baby: 7

I Know But I Don't Know: 9.5 so glad the person who decide to let the other members of Blondie harmonise with Debbie was banned from entering the studio after they recorded this travesty

11.59: 8 so glad you wanna stay alive at 11:59 but you won’t be saying the same thing when it hits 01:59 because of a rate reveal and your 11 leaves

Will Anything Happen: 8.5

Sunday Girl: 6 I don’t think Debbie Harry has the sweetness in her voice to pull this off

Heart of Glass: 7.5 this is such a great song, I just wish I connected to it more on a more personal level

I'm Gonna Love You Too: 1 this wouldn’t even be that bad of a score in normal circumstance, but coming right after Heart of Glass is such a tragic choice i can’t help but bully this song

Just Go Away: 7.5 a fine song but definitely a weak note to end the album on

Album: The B-52's: this really does sound like a group of queer friends with no varying levels of musical skill bought a bunch of instruments and then made the camp version of post-punk

Planet Claire: 9

52 Girls: 7 it’s pretty camp of this band to try and make us think they have 52 girls when I only see 2 girls on the album cover

Dance This Mess Around: 8

Rock Lobster: 10 this isn’t a song, it’s a rock lobster

Lava: 8.5

There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon): 7 a song made for me at 9 years old when I was obsessed with space and the solar system

Hero Worship: 8 invented screaming vocals

6060-842: 6 you can only give one song in a rate a 0, silly B-52’s

Downtown: 5

Album: Remain In Light: this album’s tracks do not follow the same quality pattern as GOT

Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On): 9 I kinda want to be quirkyphobic but the song slaps

Crosseyed and Painless: 7

The Great Curve: 8.5

Once in a Lifetime: 10

Houses in Motion: 8.5

Seen and Not Seen: 9

Listening Wind: 9 maybe not the song that aged the best off this album, and maybe it was never the band’s place to speak on from this perspective. But I think there is still value to this song even forty years later. For one the song is written from a place of empathy and I can’t feel any ill-intent in the lyrics or tone. It’s a deeply uncomfortable listen that doesn’t leave anyone looking good. But it never dehumanises Mojique or the people that America has colonised. I don’t know if I agree with every lyrical choice, something about the framing of “Mojique’s people” doesn’t sit right with me but I feel like I’m being nitpicky there

The Overload: 8.5 I love proto-slowcore

Album: Beauty And The Beat: queen shit

Our Lips Are Sealed: 9 I just love propulsive little sweet jams that bop

How Much More: 10 how much more of this ridiculously catchy guitar playing can i take before i go crazy

Tonite: 10 move aside Doja, Belinda and her Beats are the new queens of the streets

Lust To Love: 9.5 just love the electric guitar giving the song enough grit, but not being overbearing, beautiful balance

This Town: 7.5

We Got The Beat: 6 kinda lame ngl

Fading Fast: 10

Automatic: 8.5 gonna payola the hosts to play Automatic by The Pointer Sisters as an interlude

You Can't Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep): 9 I know it was the 80’s but this is some garbage advice

Skidmarks On My Heart: 10 drums *heart emoji*

Can't Stop The World: 9

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