And the winner is: Vinyl release. This is a result we should never see, that of a vinyl release beating a compact disc in audio quality for the same material. This is a testament to just how badly compressed this 2011 Blondie effort actually is. The vinyl mastering, as is clearly evident, was more dynamic than what was employed for the CD. The waveforms above serve as prima facie evidence of this without one even having to hear the individual tracks themselves. But do listen to them, and two things jump out right away: (1) the entire album is affected by a liberal use of autotune and over-compression, and (2) the CD version is audibly more compressed and constrained sounding than its LP counterpart. This is undeniable - just listen to how much more songs like "The End The End" and "Girlie Girlie" breathe on the vinyl, and how much better the hi hat and snare drum sound in particular. These make up the bulk of the added dynamics, but this goes quite a long way by comparison with the digital release. The vocals, unfortunately, are way too compressed and thin-sounding on this record, the result of over-processing during the mix. The drums, despite sounding better on vinyl, still suffer from a hyper-compressed snare attack. I realize that Deborah Harry and Chris Stein's stated intention was to embrace a more electronic/techno style here (let's be honest, at this point Blondie is really just their pet project and less a collective of constant, regularly contributing band members), but the approach that was actually taken during the production saps a lot of the vitality out of this material. The material has great potential for live performance, at least, but - and I hate to admit this for one of my all time favorite groups - Debrorah Harry's voice just isn't the greatest in a live setting, especially nowadays. Panic of Girls album can be challenging to obtain today in any format save for downloadable mp3s, given that it's only die-hard fans like myself who are still listing to new(ish) Blondie material, but if you can somehow get your hands on the vinyl version of this (sadly available only as an import when outside the U.K.), it is most definitely the way to go.

As a side note, my compact disc version of Panic of Girls is the "collector's pack" edition from the United Kingdom, which features not only the full album with two additional bonus tracks, but also includes a poster, postcard set, collection of souvenir buttons, and a profusely illustrated 132 page magazine full of interviews and stories about Blondie's history. It's the definitive version of the album and can still be obtained through online marketplaces.