No Exit is the seventh studio album by American rock band Blondie, released on February 15, 1999, by Beyond Music. It was the band's first album in 17 years and features the UK number-one single "Maria". As of March 2006, the album had sold two million copies worldwide.
A comeback promotional tour, the No Exit Tour, was launched preceding the release of the album, which spanned 13 months and visited Europe, North America and Oceania.
Release and reception
No Exit reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. It was preceded by the single "Maria", which became Blondie's sixth UK number one, exactly 20 years after the band's first number one, "Heart of Glass", making them the first American band to have chart-topping UK singles in three different decades: 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. A second single, "Nothing Is Real but the Girl", peaked at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart. The title track, "No Exit", was released as a limited-edition third single in Europe, and is a fusion of classical, hip hop and rock, and featuring raps by Mobb Deep, Coolio, U-God, and Inspectah Deck. "Screaming Skin" was released as a promo single in the US in late 1999.
The album was released in several editions in different countries with various bonus tracks, mainly live versions of songs recorded during the band's No Exit Tour. It was also reissued in 2001 along with all of Blondie's other studio albums.
Chris Stein commented on the title of the album in a 2004 interview: "The title was taken from a Sartre play, which says there's no madness in individuals, it's all in groups. I think that's probably what all these reality TV shows are about. Maybe we were a reality TV show before there was reality TV."
The album was not available on streaming platforms or digital music stores for several years, most likely because of a possible dispute in licensing or distribution rights, although the song "Maria" from the album could still be found on these platforms and stores on compilation albums. No Exit and its follower The Curse of Blondie (2003) were added to all streaming platforms on November 16, 2023.
Track listing
Notes
- On the 2001 reissue, tracks 15 to 17 are sequenced as one track with a total duration of 17:51.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of No Exit.
Blondie
- Clem Burke
- Jimmy Destri
- Deborah Harry
- Chris Stein
Additional musicians
- Leigh Foxx – bass guitar
- Paul Carbonara – guitar
- James Chance – saxophone
- Candy Dulfer – saxophone
- Helen Hooke – violin
- Frank Pagano – percussion
- Dave Ironside – saxophone
- Robert Aaron – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute
- Rick Davies – trombone
- Ken Fradley – trumpet
- Rik Simpson – drum programming
- Coolio – vocals
- Donna Destri – backing vocals
- Cassell Webb – backing vocals
- Jeffrey Lee Pierce – backing vocals
- Nancy West – backing vocals
- Theo Kogan – backing vocals
- Romy Ashby – backing vocals
Technical
- Craig Leon – production, recording ; mixing
- Cassell Webb – production assistance
- Mike Shipley – mixing
- Randy Nicklaus – mixing
- Michael Tocci – engineering assistance
- John Wydrycs – engineering assistance
- Ian Blanch – engineering assistance
- Milton Chan – engineering assistance
- Tal Miller – engineering assistance
- John Tamburello – technical installation
- Michael Block – technical installation
- Steve Hall – mastering
Artwork
- Rob Roth – art direction, design, photography
- Jana Paterson – design
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Weekly chart performance for No Exit
! scope="col"| Chart (1999)
! scope="col"| Peak<br/>position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 72
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| European Albums (Music & Media)
| 8
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Greek Albums (IFPI)
| 2
|-
! scope="row"| Irish Albums (IRMA)
| 6
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
| 16
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Year-end chart performance for No Exit
! scope="col"| Chart (1999)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| European Albums (Music & Media)
| 86
|-
! scope="row"| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 66
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 76
|}