Track Listing

1. Jump Jump
2. The Jam Was Moving
3. Chrome
4. Surrender
5. Inner City Spillover
6. Backfired
7. Now I Know You Know
8. Under Arrest
9. Military Rap
10. Oasis
11. Backfired (Dance Version)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186245 in Music
• Released on: 1999-01-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued

Customer Reviews

A very Chic Debbie Harry!
These days, it is practically de rigeur for stars like Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Madonna or Gwen Stefani to hook up with Timbaland, or Pharrell or will.i.am, but back in 1981, it wasn't common for an established white star to hook up with a black music producer, especially one from a punk rock group. That was exactly what happened when Blondie front woman Debbie Harry decided to release her solo debut. After the success of her band's last album "Autoamerican" (which had two US #1 hits in "Rapture" and "The tide is high"), Debbie gave Chic frontmen Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards a call and the result was "Koo koo".

The album comprised ten songs, four written by Rogers & Edwards, four written by Harry and her Blondie partner Chris Stein, and two written in collaboration with Rogers and Edwards. The cover art was an attempt to ditch her Blondie persona and was rather startling; a brunette Harry with giant metal skewers drilled through her face, and that was just the front cover. The inner sleeve photo looked even more alien with some robotic textures to her skin. I just knew I had to hide the record from view each time my mum went past, or else she would have taken righteous delight in destroying that "demonic record".

And the music? An attempt at the sonic variety Blondie had experimented with on "Autoamerican" but with an emphasis on dance/funk. The songs penned by Rogers & Edwards were the scratchy disco/funk Chic were known for; lead-off single "Backfired" a #43 US hit (and featuring a rap by Rogers, well before anyone else was doing it), the incredibly funky hand clap filled "The jam was moving" #82 in the US (and telling the funny story of a quest by the F.B.I. to find out just what it was in the music that had people all over the nation dancing, set to a skeletal bassline), "Surrender" (with a wicked guitar solo at the end), and the beautiful jazzy ballad "Now I know you know" with crystal clear vocals by Harry in her upper register (and a lovely guitar/sax coda). I've always loved Rogers & Edwards brilliant ballads like "Savoir faire" (Chic), "Now that you're gone" (Diana Ross) and "I'm a good girl" (Sister Sledge) to mention a few, and this is along those lines.

The four co-written with Stein included the opening razor sharp pop/funk "Jump jump" (a silly tale about her little doggie set to an incredibly groovy bassline), the slow chugging rock of "Chrome", the reggae "Inner city spillover" (again, with very silly abstract lyrics about a lady who had a brick fall on her bed while in bed, but with an incredible dub bassline), and the horrid "Military rap" (another attempt at Rap by Harry after "Rapture" which was very good and groovy).

The pair written with Rogers & Edwards comprise the brief rock burst "Under arrest" and the Middle Eastern tinged "Oasis" (the title of the album was taken from the lyrics of this song).

There was a reluctance by radio to play songs off the album which Nile Rogers ascribed to racism, but the album managed to be certified Gold in the US and hit #28 in the US and #6 in the UK. I loved this album and was rather worried I wouldn't be able to get in on CD but what do you know, here it is with two bonus extended versions of "Backfired" (rather redundant in my opinion) and "The jam was moving" (now, this I like, as the original ran just under 3 minutes).

Critics usually slag off this album but hey, what do they know. After this, Nile Rogers would go on to produce more pop and rock acts like Madonna ("Like a virgin"), The B-52s ("Cosmic thing"), Duran Duran ("Notorious") and David Bowie ("Let's dance") among others.

Debbie's Greatest Solo Effort to Date!
I loved this album from the day I bought it. Yes, the vinyl. One can appreciate art work on an album as opposed to a cd which just shrinks everything and takes the intensity out of it (but I loved this album so much, that I bought the CD version when it was released!).As a matter of fact, I purchased a record album frame and have Debbie on my wall amungst other really great album covers (i.e., The B-52's "Whammy!" and Klaus Nomi "Encore!")

The thing I love most about this album is the fact that it looks, sounds and feels like a Debbie Harry effort, NOT Blondie. I'm so tired of fans and critics comparing solo artists to the group they come from (Ric Ocasek of the Cars, Bjork of the Sugarcubes, Marc Almond of Soft Cell, etc.) What people seem to forget is that when an artist breaks away from their group to do some solo work, it's exactly that--solo work. It's 100% of the solo artist as opposed to the smaller % they contribute while in their group.

Every track on 'KooKoo' is remarkable. From the opener "Jump Jump" to the closing "Oasis" (on the CD it closes with the dance version of "Backfired"-fabulously extended I might add), this album is a non-stop absolutely fabulous funky good time complete with harry/stein/chic driven forces.

It was happening in 1981 and it's still happening 26 years later. Kudos to Debbie!

Mess
Back then, everybody thought that an album produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers and performed by Debbie Harry on vocals would be an instant hit. Unfortunatelly it's just another record where the songs are simply too ordinary to let the project take off. Half of them co-written by Debbie, half by Rodgers, there is something strange in the air. Her vocals sound no more passionate then they did on 'The Hunter' (!), and the production is just average, with nothing here ressembling the energy of 'Good Times', 'We Are Family', 'Modern Love' or 'Upside Down'. First single ''The Jam Was Moving'' is almost catchy and still danceable, but it leaves the expectation that the second one finally delivers a portion of the album's best. What happens is that following 7'' release, the anemic ''Backfired'', is embarassing even for, say, a non-album demo B-side. ''Jump Jump'' is surely more fun than that, and was indeed released as a promo-only single, but after the disc flopped it seems that Chrysalis didn't want to release anything else out of this mess. It's not the worse of Debbie's solo albums, but unlike humbly trashy 'Rockbird', 'KooKoo' tries too hard to be the classic hit it has never been. For Debbie's huge fans or completists of either Harry or Rodger's work. 2,5 stars.