Forty years into their career and Blondie are still prepared to push boundaries. Their 11th studio album comprises a series of collaborations with high-profile guests, the results adding a 21st-century electronic sheen to the glossy 70s new wave with which they made their name. Dev Hynes drops shards of Heart of Glass into Long Time; recent single Fun, with TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek at the helm, sounds uncannily like Scissor Sisters at their most disco; Johnny Marr co-writes and adds guitar to My Monster, and Charli XCX and Sia also feature elsewhere. Yet despite the divergent inputs, Pollinator still has the feel of a coherent album that’s enjoyable, if hardly essential.
