An expansive Blondie box set titled Blondie: Against the Odds 1974-1982 that focuses on the influential New Wave band’s original heyday and is fully authorized by the group will be released on August 26.
The retrospective will be available in multiple formats and configurations, including an eight-CD set and a Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition featuring 10 12-inch vinyl LPs, a 10-inch LP and a 7-inch vinyl single.
The vinyl box set features 124 tracks, 36 of which are previously unreleased. The collection contains remastered versions of Blondie’s first six studio albums — 1976’s Blondie, 1977’s Plastic Letters, 1978’s Parallel Lines, 1979’s Eat to the Beat, 1980’s Autoamerican and 1982’s The Hunter — and four LPs of outtakes, demos, remixes, alternate versions and other rarities.
The 10-inch disc features rarities from 1974 and ’75, while the vinyl single boasts a cover of The Doors‘ “Moonlight Drive” and a demo of “Mr. Sightseer.”
The box set also includes extensive liner notes; track-by-track commentary from Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke and former members Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Frank Infante and Gary Valentine; essays by producers Mike Chapman, Richard Gottehrer and Ken Shipley; and a 120-page illustrated discography.
Blondie: Against the Odds will also be available as a four-LP package, a three-CD set and digitally, and can be preordered now. The “Moonlight Drive” cover has been released as an advance digital single.
“I am excited about this special collection,” says Harry. “When I listen to these old tracks, it puts me there like I am a time traveler.”
Adds Stein, “I am hopeful that this project will provide a glimpse into the ‘process’ and some of the journey that the songs took from idea to final form.”
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