No Exit | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 15, 1999 | |||
Recorded | 1998 | |||
Studio | Red Night Recording, Electric Lady and Chung King House of Metal (New York City) | |||
Genre | Alternative rock | |||
Length | 59:05 | |||
Label | Beyond Music | |||
Producer | Craig Leon | |||
Blondie chronology | ||||
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Singles from No Exit | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | A− [2] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Entertainment Weekly | C [4] |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
No Exit is the seventh studio album by American rock band Blondie, released on February 15, 1999, [7] by Beyond Music. It was the band's first album in 17 years and features the UK number-one single "Maria". As of March 2006, the album had sold two million copies worldwide. [8]
As was customary for a Blondie album, No Exit dabbled in many genres, including pop, reggae, country, and hip hop. Mike Chapman, who had produced all but the first two of Blondie's previous albums, produced some of the early demos for the album, though final production of the album fell to Craig Leon.
A cover of the Shangri-Las' 1965 song "Out in the Streets" is included on the album. Blondie first recorded a version of the song in 1975 while they were trying to get a record deal. The 1975 demo version was first issued on EMI's 1994 anthology The Platinum Collection and was later included on the 2001 remastered version of the band's eponymous debut studio album.
The song "Under the Gun" is a tribute to musician Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club, a longtime friend of the band who died in 1996. [9]
A comeback promotional tour, the No Exit Tour, was launched preceding the release of the album, which spanned 13 months and visited Europe, North America and Oceania.
No Exit reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. It was preceded by the single "Maria", which became Blondie's sixth UK number one, exactly 20 years after the band's first number one, "Heart of Glass", making them the first American band to have chart-topping UK singles in three different decades: 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. [10] A second single, "Nothing Is Real but the Girl", peaked at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart. The title track, "No Exit", was released as a limited-edition third single in Europe, and is a fusion of classical, hip hop and rock, and featuring raps by Mobb Deep, Coolio, U-God, and Inspectah Deck. "Screaming Skin" was released as a promo single in the US in late 1999.
The album was released in several editions in different countries with various bonus tracks, mainly live versions of songs recorded during the band's No Exit Tour. It was also reissued in 2001 along with all of Blondie's other studio albums.
Chris Stein commented on the title of the album in a 2004 interview: "The title was taken from a Sartre play, which says there's no madness in individuals, it's all in groups. I think that's probably what all these reality TV shows are about. Maybe we were a reality TV show before there was reality TV."
The album was not available on streaming platforms or digital music stores for several years, most likely because of a possible dispute in licensing or distribution rights, although the song "Maria" from the album could still be found on these platforms and stores on compilation albums. No Exit and its follower The Curse of Blondie (2003) were added to all streaming platforms on November 16, 2023.
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Screaming Skin" |
|
| 5:37 |
2. | "Forgive and Forget (Pull Down the Night)" | Stein | Stein | 4:31 |
3. | "Maria" | Jimmy Destri | Destri | 4:51 |
4. | "No Exit" |
|
| 4:19 |
5. | "Double Take" (featuring Candy Dulfer) | Harry | Stein | 4:12 |
6. | "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" | Destri | Destri | 3:13 |
7. | "Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room" |
| 4:08 | |
8. | "Night Wind Sent" |
|
| 4:40 |
9. | "Under the Gun" (for Jeffrey Lee Pierce) | Stein | Stein | 4:09 |
10. | "Out in the Streets" |
| 3:03 | |
11. | "Happy Dog" (for Caggy) |
| Stein | 3:24 |
12. | "The Dream's Lost on Me" | Ashby |
| 3:19 |
13. | "Divine" |
|
| 4:14 |
14. | "Dig Up the Conjo" | Destri |
| 4:55 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
15. | "Dreaming" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) (hidden track) |
| 3:22 |
16. | "Call Me" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) (hidden track) |
| 4:47 |
17. | "Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) (hidden track) |
| 7:07 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
15. | "Call Me" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 4:47 |
16. | "Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 7:07 |
17. | "Heart of Glass" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 6:49 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Call Me" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 4:47 |
2. | "Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 7:07 |
3. | "Dreaming" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 3:21 |
4. | "Heart of Glass" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 6:49 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
15. | "Hot Shot" |
| 3:46 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
15. | "Hot Shot" |
| 3:46 |
16. | "Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 7:07 |
17. | "Heart of Glass" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) |
| 6:49 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Hot Shot" (David Wrench 2025 remix) |
| |
2. | "Maria" (Ether Dub Mix) | Destri | |
3. | "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" (Boilerhouse Lounge Mix) | Destri | |
4. | "No Exit" (Urban Version Main Mix) |
| |
5. | "Maria" (Talvin Singh Rhythmic Remix Edit) | Destri | |
6. | "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" (Danny Tenaglia Heart of Trance) | Destri | |
7. | "Forgive and Forget (Pull Down the Night)" (Ben's Mix) | Stein | |
8. | "Maria" (White Trash Mix) | Destri |
Credits adapted from the liner notes of No Exit. [11]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Portugal | — | 8,000 [31] |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [32] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [33] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States | — | 417,000 [34] |
Summaries | ||
Worldwide | — | 2,000,000 [8] |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)