COMMENTS

-- press release

With her new album Debravation [Sire/Reprise], Deborah Harry has assembled an extraordinary cast of producers, players and special guests. These fourteen new songs were written with a very impressive list of collaborators.

The result is an album that once again finds Deborah Harry pushing the boundaries of popular music into intriguing new territory. Debravation, in short, is business as usual in a career that has consistently embodied the unique, the innovative and the unusual.

Considering it's been nearly four years since the release of her Sire/Reprise Record debut, Def, Dumb And Blonde, Debravation is a fitting title for fans who have been deprived of Debbie's savvy, consummately crafted brand of pop music.

Working with her long-time collaborator Chris Stein, the pair assembled a wide array of material for Debravation while on the road in Europe and America. They then enlisted an array of composers and producers to enhance the dynamic diversity that has always been a part of Debbie's sound.

Among the co-conspirators: the award-winning team of Frannie Gold & Allee Willis, Arthur Baker, Toni C., Guy Pratt, Art Of Noise's Anne Dudley, up-and-corner Leigh Foxx, Jon Astley and even cyberpunk godfather William Gibson, who worked with Stein on the future-shock track "Dog Star Girl."

"Initially we were after a very immediate, very raw sound", explains Debbie. "As the recording continues, however, different elements began to emerge, some of them quite layered and polished. What we ended up with, I think, is the best of both worlds: a sound with a real edge that also takes full advantage of the studio state-of-the-art."

Debravation also highlights a core of songs, tied together by a common thread. "Cuts like "Rain", "Dancing Down The Moon" and "I Can See Clearly" have lots of references to nature, its beauty and the way that it almost mystically affects us", she explains. "It's not a message record. I'm not trying to beat anyone over the head about ecology, but I did want to connect with my own personal, sensual feeling about the world, the weather and the planet."

In sharp contrast to these sentiments are such key Debravation cuts as "Lip Service", with its propulsive dance rhythms and trademark Edgar Allan Poe homage, the jazzy textures of "Mood Ring", the punk-inflected "Standing In My Way" and the above-mentioned "Dog Star Girl" with its scintillating sci-fi subtext. The term "bonus track", meanwhile, takes on new significance with Debbie's updated rendition of two classics, "Tear Drops" and "My Last Date (With You)" which features production and instrumental performances by R.E.M.

And while Debravation will again bring Debbie's sound and presence back to the airwaves and record racks, fans of her live show will have to wait until later this fall to see her.

[...]

Now, with Debravation she delivers again: an album that deftly captures the essence of an artist who delights in defying both convention and description and remains consistently original, challenging and entertaining.