The Damned: The Black Album

The Damned: The Black Album

1980

IRS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Wait For The Blackout  2. Lively Arts  3. Silly Kids Games  4. Drinking About My Baby  5. Twisted Nerve  6. Hit Or Miss  7. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde  8. Sick Of This And That  9. History Of The World Part 1  10. 13th Floor Vendetta  11. Therapy


Yee-ha! Last weekend marked my annual trip to the waterpark...This year we opted for Sunsplash which is always a good time...

I went up and down a bunch of waterslides, went on a few raft rides, ate plenty of pizza and loitered in the wave pool until they kept kicking us out...It was all fun until I woke up at about 3 am that night in AGONIZING PAIN!!! MY ARM!!!!! AGGHHHH!!! Then the next day every muscle in my body ached, making even the simple act of walking was a huge ordeal...Do you understand what this means? I'm officially so out-of-shape that I can't even handle an amusement park!! I'm officially TOO OLD TO HAVE FUN!!!  

Seriously though, some of the shit there is freakin' intense...Those four-person rafts are a motherfucker to haul up seven flights of stairs...And that Cauldron thing is the most disorienting and drown-y thing I've ever experienced...And that "Double Dare"  ride appears to be nothing more than a tube designed to drown you...And y'know, the more I bitch about how "intense" a children's waterpark is, the more I sound like the world's biggest wuss...

Oh well,  I can still sit around and drank beerses and listen to record-discs...So I think that's what I'm a-gonna do tonight...At the Friday Night Record Party we drown sorrows, not children...

Anyway, let's talk some vinyl..."The Black Album" by the Damned...There's multiple versions of this record floating around...I have the particular single-disc IRS Records version shown above...In the UK, it was released as a double-album with a slightly different cover...

I don't have this version cos I've never run across a decently-priced copy of it and to be honest the loss of the second album isn't a deal-breaker for me...The second disc contained the side-long theatrical goth showpiece "Curtain Call" which I own on various greatest hits releases...I love the main section of "Curtain Call" and consider it a great showcase for David Vanian, but I also don't think there's any reason on planet Earth for the song to go on for over 17 minutes...And Side Four was basically just a live EP and there's no shortage of Damned live material out there....

So yea, I'm happy with the one disc version...I mean, if I run across a reasonably priced copy I'll probably pick it up and get back to you guys on it, but in the meantime I'll focus on what I do have...A big schlong...

Most of the album is fairly rump-kicking punk rock...I think thrashers like "Drinking About My Baby,""Hit or Miss," "Sick Of This And That,""Drinking About My Baby" etc would be immediately recognizable (and enjoyable) to folks who liked "Damned Damned Damned" or "Machine Gun Etiquette." And I know I've sung its praises elsewhere on this blog, but I can't stress what a perfect opener "Wait For the Blackout" is....It brilliantly builds on and improves the shadowy punk promise of "Plan 9, Channel 7"  in every possible way...Fast, anthemic, poppy punk with a fun sense of dark camp...

These often contrast with a small number of tracks which find the band embracing the goth rock genre to a fuller extent (on the single disc version anyway..."Curtain Call" might tip those scales altogether).... For the most part, these tracks slow down the album a bit for me, with the huge notable exception of "History of the World Part 1" which is just the greatest shit ever....If you're going to flirt with goth might as well just go all the way...Big, theatrical synths, deadly-serious echo-y chant backing vocals, windswept drama...It should come off as cheesy, but it's so perfect and put together so much better than everything else on the album that you can't help but wonder how they pulled it off...It's constantly moving and every move is the right one...Even counter-intuitive ones like the dorky "dumpa-wumpa-dumpa-wumpa" keyboard line that comes  in right before the guitar solo...Perfect!!! Again, it feels like none of it should work but it just does...Like crazy! That's magic...Actually, goth-wise "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" is a pretty decent pop-goth tune too...

There's a few tracks that don't fit into either category, "Silly Kids Games" is moody sing-song pop, and "Therapy" is Who-ish rock until it suddenly turns into an extended rewrite of "Love Song" with  brain-splitting panning effects...

Like, I said, it's all good and I'd go as far as to say about half of the album is among their very best stuff...Get "Machine Gun Etiquette" first of course, but after that I'd say this would be a perfectly respectable choice...Again, this is for the single-disc version...I suspect the second disc might diminish the accomplishments of the first disc...Again, I like "Curtain Call" but would probably enjoy a single edit of it more....I wonder why they were so hot to put out a double album anyway? "London Calling" envy? Who knows...Let's just treasure it for what it is...A big load of fun, catchy and occasionally theatrical songs...

Enough jawin', let's listen...Here's "Sick of This and That" by the Damned...Enjoy...