A definite step up from Blondie‘s self-titled debut album, but not by much, and Plastic Letters is certainly no comparison to the huge leap the band would take forward next with Parallel Lines.

The pieces are all there: Chris Stein’s surf rock licks, Deborah Harry’s showgirl vocals (very unusual when compared to the other husky-voiced female rock vocalists around the same time), Jimmy Destri’s light and playful synthesizer, and of course Clem Burke pounds on his drum kit. They just needed to be put in the right places and raised to the appropriate levels.

Stein needed to come up with better riffs, Debbie needed to increase her attention-grabbing allure and assert her status as a strong frontwoman, Destri needed more fun fun and memorable synth lines, and Burke needed to play his beats stronger.

All these aspects would be fine-tuned and improved on the follow-up album, but Plastic Letters is still a competent pop/rock album with a ton of personality and fun that often makes up for the mostly standard songwriting, and also comes the closest to punk rock out of any of Blondie’s albums. And let’s face it—even when Blondie started writing some of the most memorable pop songs of the ’80s, it was the fun and energy underneath them that made them and the band as good as they ever were.