More Music

• Cowboy Junkies revisit, re-record 'The Trinity Session'
• Review: 3D effects flesh out U2
• CD reviews: Jet Lag Gemini; RTX; Metro Station; We the Kings

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

We get to luxuriate in an embarrassment of riches as two female music icons come to the Land of Enchantment for shows this weekend.

Deborah Harry, "Necessary Evil" (Five Seven Music)

The 62-year-old former namesake for original pop-punkers Blondie has dropped her first solo disc in 14 years. It's an exotic genre jaunt — dance, rock, pop, New Wave — that's at once familiar yet offers some things slightly new. There's a maturity in her vocals, but they remain sexy, airy and breathy, which complement the tunes that are mostly about love.

First single "Two Times Blue," a New Wave dance tune, opens to get you in the mood. Two of the better songs are also the most Blondie-ish of the lot: "Charm Alarm," New Wave punk disco, and the punkish electro-pop of "Whiteout."

There's another Blondie connection, as well. Chris Stein, guitarist for the seminal group, pops up on two tracks. "Jen Jen" is multiculti funk in the tradition of Talking Heads, chants and all, while the dadaistic "Naked Eye" fashions tribal pop over elastic psychedelia while spewing surreal imagery.

However, she hasn't forsaken her love of hip-hop. On the poppy "Deep End" — a sea allegory about, what else, love — she busts a rhyme on the verses while singing the chorus. The dance pop of "Dirty and Deep" has a hip-hop vibe as it reprises the hypnotic "You're Too Hot," which seems like doo-wop for the new millennium. "Love With a Vengeance" sounds like a funky tone poem with handclaps and a hip-hop sensibility.

Harry gets experimental on the trancey, electronic instrumental "Charm Redux," as well as on the mechanical and tribal "Heat of the Moment," which just repeats the title. The title track displays a jones for '60s-'70s rock with a Robin Trower/Jimi Hendrix feel.

This album only loses its juice on the sappy ballads, which probably could've been cut off the 17-song tracklisting.

Harry brings her evil, necessary or not, to the Sunshine Theater, 120 Central Ave. S.W., on Sunday for an all-ages show. Kristoffer Ragnstam opens. Doors at 7/show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25, plus service charges, at Ticketmaster outlets and at the door. Call 883-7800 or go to Ticketmaster. Smoking and alcohol service in segregated areas.

Johnette Napolitano "Scarred" (Hybrid Recordings)

Almost 20 years removed from the debut of her former band, the Concrete Blonde frontwoman has released her official solo debut. (Quibble all you want, but 2002's "Sketchbook" and '06's "Sketchbook 2" were limited-edition self-efforts that were not widely distributed.)

Her signature voice — haunting, raw, rough-hewn, emotional and throaty — and spoken-wordlike style are provided an ample showcase. Often, it's just a guitar and her voice: the spare and conspiratorial "Crazy Tonight" with its visions of love as a fevered dream; "My Diane," a cyclical tune that sounds like a lullaby and a curse; and a cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist" that she makes into her own scary tale of stalking with help from ex-NIN guitarist Danny Lohner.

The songs are mostly about love or its (not-so-pretty) aftermath (the love dirge "Amazing"). It's vexing trying to figure out whether these tunes are autobiographical (the harrowing confessional of the title tune with its killer guitar jam) or just some lysergic dream with evocative lyrics ("Poem for the Native" with the opening line: "Kissing James Dean on a Ferris wheel/No, I don't feel anything").

"Everything for Everyone," where she wants cacophonous revenge, recalls her past work in Concrete Blonde while also moving forward. Her tribute to New Orleans, "Save Me," has a gospel intensity, while "I'm Up Here" is a spoken word revelation and call to action.

The languid pop of "Just Like Time" echoes Echo and the Bunnymen, while Napolitano's cover of the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" is tempered psychedelia.

Johnette Napolitano comes to the Santa Fe Brewing Co., 27 Fire Place Road, Santa Fe, at 8 p.m. Saturday, for an all-ages show with David J of Bauhaus, and Love and Rockets fame. $18. Lensic Box Office (505) 988-1234; ticketssantafe.org.