After many wayward years of making mediocre albums and embarrassing attempts at modernizing, Blondie returns after an eight-year hiatus to deliver Panic of Girls, and at this point even a fan would hesitate to listen to a release that by this point we all know will never match Parallel Lines.

But hey—it’s not half bad. In fact, for Blondie, it’s a good album. Someone could be excused for calling it “great” even. No rap collaborations with Coolio here (see No Exit), nor embarrassing lyrics about the Pope’s dick (see The Curse of Blondie). This is a return to form that is far overdue.

Far overdue because the band and their music has inevitably aged. Deborah Harry’s voice has weakened noticeably over the years, but can still always deliver an adequate vocal performance, and at times someone might not even notice she’s aged at all. Other than Deb, only long-time members Chris Stein and Clem Burke return, but they’ve always been the groove and muscle of the group.

Which is good, because they back up these synthesizer-heavy pop hits very appropriately. In fact, for the first time on a Blondie release, the guitars take a backseat to the synthesizers. But Blondie has always been a pop band, and these pop songs (“D-Day,” “What I Heard,” “Mother,” “Love Doesn’t Frighten Me”) are extremely catchy and accessible. Production-wise, it does sound like something dug up from the ’80s that was refurbished for the present day, but Blondie are an ’80s band, so it sounds familiar in a positive way.

However, the album does flounder a bit. Much of the album consists of slow, simple reggae songs. It could even be considered laziness for how many of these songs there are, because they lack the catchy pop hooks of the rest of the album. And Debbie simply doesn’t have the voice anymore to deliver that calming sexual coo that made hits such as “The Tide Is High” so endearing. Songs such as “Girlie Girlie” and “Words in My Mouth” aren’t bad, but are repetitive and their styling is so common that they bring down the upbeat pop excitement of the rest of the album. Normally, a track or two like this may be good contrast, but the softer breaks here are just too frequent.

Panic of Girls isn’t perfect, but hey, when was Blondie ever perfect? They’re a fun pop band, and on Panic of Girls they’re doing what they know they’re capable of—and showing us they can still do it rather well. You’ll have to excuse an excited Blondie fan who’s happy to see this band rejuvenated.