Debravation

Speaking of the album, Harry told Melody Maker in 1993, "The album I originally wanted to make was quite different from the one that came out in the end. There were lots of people involved in producing and arranging it and it became perhaps a bit too polished. It was supposed to be a lot more raw. It's come out kind of interesting, though."^[8]

The first single from the album was the dance track "I Can See Clearly", which reached No. 23 in the UK.^[9] The second single, ballad "Strike Me Pink", had a controversial promotional video that was banned^{[citation needed]} for being too disturbing – it featured a man in a glass tank filled with water, as Harry sits and watches him drown.

In the UK, Chris Roberts of Melody Maker considered Debravation to be a "sensible attempt to consolidate fields ploughed" by Harry's previous album Def, Dumb & Blonde (1989), but also noted the lack of cohesion, calling it "something of a Jill of all trades – rock, pop, dance, rap etc". He felt the album's "great moments" were "as good as anything in the history of pop" and selected "Communion" as the album's "zenith", noting it boasts the "most irresistible chorus" since the Bee Gees' "Tragedy". He also praised "Stability", calling it the "Nineties kid sister" to Blondie's "Rapture", and "Strike Me Pink", with its "hovering 'Brite Side' haze".^[10] Stephen Dalton of NME described the album as a "saddening affair" on which Harry "too often seems to be imitating her imitators". He felt it is "poorly stocked with effortless techno gliders" such as the "svelte" "Lip Service" and "top-heavy with rock-funk chuggers" like the "middling, could-do-better first single", "I Can See Clearly". He noted that the "sweet pop-rap confection" "Stability" recalls Blondie's "Rapture", but added that the song, along with "a handful of New Wave guitar gushers" are "all stamped with a desperate longing for past glory", and that "even potentially oddball experiments like the William Gibson collaboration ["Dog Star Girl"] sound graceless and mechanical".^[4]