New wave icons Blondie stormed back on Thursday (Oct. 15) with the first single from their upcoming 12th studio album, High Noon. The jangly, driving “Spectral Eyes” was written by former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who plays guitar and adds backing vocals on the track that also features former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock.
The 13-track album, the group’s first since their 2017 LP Pollinator, is due out on Feb. 26 via BMG. According to a release, it mixes their classic punk/new wave energy with dance music and Latin rhythms on tracks that feature contributions from Marr, Matlock, Beirut’s Zach Condon and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius. It is also the last recording co-founders singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein made with late drummer and fellow co-founder Clem Burke before his death in 2025.
“This album is classic Blondie — an amalgamation of all our different influences and eras into something new,” said Harry in a statement. “This music feels grounded in the present, shaped by who we are and how we’re living now.”
Like Pollinator — which featured contributions from Joan Jett, Marr and The Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi — High Noon was produced by John Congleton, and the group said that following Burke’s death at 70 from cancer last April the record took on added meaning.
“It’s been a long, strange ride, and somehow here we are with another Blondie album,” said Stein of the latest from the band formed in New York in 1974, which now stands as one of the last remaining groups still making new music from an era that spawned the Talking Heads, The Ramones, Television and Patti Smith. “I’m not sure what the f–k I’m supposed to say at this point, except that we’re incredibly grateful for all your support over the years.”
Some of the LP’s songs also hint at the legacy of that era, including “Heartbreak Kid,” written by Stein and influenced by the late Heartbreakers singer/guitarist Johnny Thunders and Blondie’s New York roots, as well as the Matlock-penned, punk-rooted “Sleepwalking.” The collection from the “Heart of Glass” band will also feature a version of “Little Metal Drummer,” a track originally recorded by Blondie co-founding keyboardist Jimmy Destri for his 1981 solo debut album Heart On a Wall, with the original also featuring contributions from Harry and Burke.
The High Noon track listing: “Spectral Eyes,” “Heartbreak Kid,” “Come Back Home,” “Tambo Tambo,” “Man Who Had No Face,” “The End,” “Little Metal Drummer,” “Sleepwalking,” “Whistle Into the Wind,” “Antifreeze,” “East of Eden,” “Bad Underwear” and “Ah, Sunflower, Weary of Time.”
Listen to “Spectral Eyes” below.
