She had one of the most beautiful pop culture faces of the late '70s and '80s--and at the age of 60, Debbie Harry still strikes a stunning pose. The first female rapper to hit the top 20 (with her ground breaking punk rock/new wave band, Blondie), Debbie Harry was the ultimate New York rock star in an era when similarly innovative Manhattan musicians from Run DMC and Grandmaster Flash to Lou Reed, Television and Patti Smith were establishing their careers and breaking all the rules. Blondie smashes like "Heart Of Glass," "Rapture," "The Tide Is High," and "Call Me" remain the stuff of TV commercials, film soundtracks and jingles (not to mention classic rock radio), but Debbie Harry is looking forward, not back.

Harry's new album, Necessary Evil, finds the pouty lipped icon in full-on Blondie mode, even if the band itself is nowhere to be heard. Co-written with the production team Super Buddha (Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters), Necessary Evil and its songs "Two Times Blue," "If I Had You," "You're Too Hot," and "Charm Alarm" sound like Blondie updated for 2008. The hooks reel you in, the grooves are designed (detonated?) for the dance floor, and Harry's voice soars above it all, like some dark angel who can't help but release herself in song.

Describing Necessary Evil as an album about the many colors of love and relationships, Harry even pays respect to the ultimate example of love gone wrong--the suicide bomber--in closing track, "Paradise."

Currently working on her autobiography while Blondie continues to tour the world, Debbie Harry recently appeared with Sir Ben Kingsley and Dennis Hopper in the film, Elegy. An authorized Debbie Harry biopic to be directed by Michael Gondry is in the planning stages, but its fate is undecided, one way or another.

Yahoo! It's been 14 years since your last solo album. What have you been doing with yourself?

Debbie Harry: (Laughs) Good question. Oh God. Well, we put Blondie back together in the mid '90s, and that took a little bit of doing. Then we recorded the No Exit album. Then we toured that for a couple of years. In 2003 we recorded The Curse Of Blondie. And we toured that ever since, really. Basically, I am just working and touring with Blondie. We began slowing the touring down, now we just do corporate shows and private parties. I found myself with some time on my hands and some interesting people that I wanted to work with, and so, it worked out nicely for Necessary Evil.

Yahoo!: What do you do when you are not being Blondie?

Harry: I'm always Blondie! I like to go to the movies, I like to go out and hear bands, pretty much normal stuff. I don't have any fantastic hobbies like piloting or skydiving. I think I am probably a little bit old for skydiving. I did my bungee jumping a few years back. That was cool. So thrilling. It made me smile for days. It made me so happy.

In one article you were quoted as saying that 9-11 changed New York's values system. How so?

It seems like there are a lot of people who don't have a vested interest in New York City. And they are shaping the way the city looks. It is changing our lives, making New York into a sort of bland place. New York should never be about bland! This country needs to get away from bland. New York was one of the places where you could come and there were people that really had a vested interest in the city. It's like the old guard has left or is dying off. It's become not very tasteful, really.

Is there anything that can stop those monied interests? New York is turning into a city for the wealthy and the tourists.

New York has always been a city for the wealthy. There was that split, the wealthy and the poor. That gave us poor kids who were trying to be artists these little neighborhoods downtown where we could actually find cheap housing. But now property values have gone through the roof. But this is happening all over the western world. City life is not for people with no money. You've got to have dough.

You're a voracious reader; what are you currently reading?

I am reading several books. Of Time And The River by Thomas Wolfe. A bunch of stories by Haruki Murakami. And a friend just sent me Maria Wolf's Night Shift. Sometimes the books fuel the music. A phrase might trigger something. There is a book by Martin Amis called Times Arrow, its storyline goes in reverse. I actually put that in the "Naked Eye" song: "When times arrow shoots up your arm." It's a song about tattooing.

Some of my favorite songs on your new album--"Two Times Blue," "If I Had You," "You're' Too Hot," "Charm Alarm"--these are great, Blondie-styled songs. Are you a natural songwriter or do you have to work hard to bring it all together?

Some are harder than others. Sometimes they are so spontaneous I can't believe it's happening. Other times it's a real labor of love. And very workmanlike. There is never one constant approach.

You wrote the album with the production team Super Buddha, did it just spill out of you?

Yes, it was a fun process. They are terrific to work with. Very talented musicians and writers. It was simple with just three people, getting into the studio was a breeze.

You've written such effortless pop hooks on this record. Do you feel that is at all is missing on modern radio?

Some of the stuff I hear on the radio I wonder how it gets there. And some of it is really quite good. I hear more hooky stuff when I go to clubs. There are a lot of current artists I like, such as LCD Soundsystem, Mia, and that band that sings "La la la, La la la, Give me three wishes." That is really good. And the Calvin Harris single, "Merrymaking At My Place." I enjoy going to clubs, a couple of my friends are DJs. I love dancing.

Can you tell me about the upcoming Blondie biopic directed by Michael Gondry?

It's really something that got into the press prematurely. It was just a discussion and it went right in as being a done deal. Believe me, it's far from that. There is no script. Nothing. It would be a lovely project, that is all I can say. Sounds like a really good idea.

Would this be an authorized film?

That is the problem. It wasn't supposed to be a Blondie band story; it was a biography picture about me, if anything. But believe me it has gotten blown out of the water prematurely.

Did you write with a theme in mind for the new record?

I didn't but as I went along I did feel that most song lyrics are about love or relationships or finding love or sex or some kind of theme like that. So I decided that except for a couple songs they are mostly about relationships and all different kinds of love experiences. The final song on the album, "Paradise," is about love in the strangest possible way--about a suicide bomber who does what she does for love, supposedly. I find all of this, in thinking about it afterwards, that love is such a strange thing and it is so important to all of our lives. And so complicated. It is something for us as Americans to really get a grip on and understand and not just look at people with different points of view as just being evil or bad. They really do have a point of view although I don't think that killing other people is the answer. But understanding that depth of feeling and commitment is something to really appreciate.

What do you see as the biggest change in music from the 70s to now?

One of the biggest changes is the digital format; it makes music more accessible to a lot more people. It doesn't necessarily make it better, but it makes it a lot easier as witnessed by My Space. One of the things that really bothers me, though, about any kind of recording is that I am not in control. I have to sit there while they do all the placing and the editing. I spend a lot of time sitting around waiting.