It’s a psychedelic ride and part of the soundtrack to a dark, edgy gothic horror movie – maybe Screaming Carrion.
They open with The Invisible Man, a menacing rocker hovering away on the brink of a nightmare, complete with a mood-altering airlift and a stylish run-in on cryptic confessions.
Bad Weather Girl — about the climate, not Ulrika — starts with rolling thunder and feels scarier than Elm Street before building into the instantly catchy verse and earworm chorus.
Captain Sensible’s guitar, brilliant throughout, brings chills to the unsettling middle eighth.
The mood and pace are varied. Dave Vanian’s rich baritone comes into his own on the raucous rocker Beware Of The Clown, portraying today’s politicians as “a tent full of misfits.”
Read more: The official coronation album of King Charles III has been announced in an unprecedented world first
The wistful western promise takes you along the dreamy rising tide.
Bassist Paul Gray is a motorcycle guy who hits the throttle full throttle, blasting out Middle Eastern flavors.
The closest, Roderick, is slower and more gothic with the welcome addition of what sounds like a group of possessed monks.
The band’s twelfth album is interesting in every way. Monty Oxymoron keyboards add depth and ambiance, anchored by percussion by Gray and drummer William Granville Taylor.
In the 70s, The Damned were the first punk band to release a single, New Rose, and an album – The Dazzned Damned Damned.
If I had told them then that they would be making some of their best music after 46 years – like The Stranglers – they would have roared. Especially since they were also the first punk pioneers to break up.
Yet here they are, in their late sixties, dancing on the grave of yesterday’s music assumptions.
To misquote The Who, the old is fine.
[ad_2]
