The Damned - So, Who's Paranoid?

What a safe, sterile, serene little release from the Damned. Harkens back to the day of their Phantasmagoria / Black Album / Strawberries phase of their career (yuck), but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Kind of rocking, in a 60's Garage Punk Psychedelic kind of way, and it's a little spooky too, courtesy of the graveyard crooning of Mr. Dave Vanian. He sounds as great as ever, but his lyrical musings are asinine and meaningless, but in a good, Pop sort of way... heh heh. Captain Sensible has a knack for picking out beautiful musical passages on that guitar of his, and I think he may be a bit underrated in that department. The guy really can play that thing. The rest of the boys in the Damned at the moment do a good job of accompanying the 2 elder punk musicians on their musical journey through Punk, Pop, Goth and Psychedelia. I mean, the last song on here, Dark Asteroid, is over 14 minutes long! Talk about an acid flashback! LOL I guess with the passage of Time comes the onset of Maturity, and for the Damned, this is definitely a 'mature" album from them. I'll leave it to you to decide if that's a good thing or not.

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