Debbie Harry — Necessary Evil

Fourteen years after her last solo effort, Blondie bombshell Debbie Harry returns with Necessary Evil, a fitting title for an album that sounds like it's a last-ditch effort to penetrate the mainstream. Unsurprisingly, production duo Super Buddha (Scissor Sisters, Rufus Wainwright) have assembled a crack band to surround Harry's noticeably throatier voice with enough snappy guitars, pick-up beats and glistening keyboards to make the ex-disco punk princess feel at home. At 62, the old girl's voice hasn't deepened anywhere near Marianne Faithfull levels, but her higher range eerily sounds like the pitch-corrected timbre of Shania Twain, particularly on sappy radio fodder "If I Had You" and "What Is Love." At this stage of her career, though, the ballads are easier to swallow than tracks like "Dirty And Deep," her attempt at hip-hop that sounds like grandma's porn audition. Harry's always had the allure of the hooker with the heart of, er, gold, but she's at her best when she acts her age.

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