This feature appears in V137, now available for purchase

Nostalgia, as the age-old joke goes, just gets better with time. This phenomenon is something American new wave band Blondie knows all too well. Having made their debut in 1974, the group defined the bustling sounds of downtown New York, mingling amongst legends like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat all the while frequenting hotspots like the always-bustling CBGB and the Park Avenue favorite Max’s Kansas City. With punchy hits like “Call Me,” “Heart of Glass,” “Dreaming,” and so many more, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Gary Valentine, and Jimmy Destri took the city—and the world—by storm.

Over 40 million streams and nearly five decades later, Blondie’s undying legacy carries to the modern day, as the famed squad is set to release its first-ever official box set Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982. For over two decades, Stein—the band’s co-founder and guitarist—held onto the majority of Blondie’s audio and visual archive in a quant barn in Woodstock, New York. Much to the delight of Blondie lovers everywhere, the once-hidden collection—reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, records, a loose Warhol print, and ‘80s promotional signage–is now reimagined as a chart of cultural and musical history.

A glimpse into the band’s nearly five-decade-long influence, the box set features 124 tracks, 36 of which are previously unissued, as well as a must-see breadth of commentary, rare imagery, and early outtakes. Slow-burning jams like “In The Sun” are imagined alongside bestsellers “One Way or Another” and “Hanging on the Telephone.” Too, a literal piece of sonic history appears in the set in the form of the band’s first-ever recording session in 1974.

What was once a disorganized, neglected pile of boxes and cartons is now a modern encyclopedia of pop-rock’s most important tastemakers. Like nostalgia, Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 just gets better with time.

Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 Box Set is available on August 26, 2022.