The Damned, Evil Spirits, A Review (2018)

The Damned, Evil Spirits, A Review (2018)

By: Erreh Svaia
Rock N Roll Animal

The first punk band to ever record a piece of music, the legendary single “New Rose”, The Damned now rises as the definitive long lasting punk rock band, the “Rolling Stones” of punk rock one could say, the interesting thing with The Damned, as in the case of bands like Wire, or perhaps like The Stranglers (or Pere Ubu, or Television, who were before punk and somewhat jumped even into the realm of post punk), is their ability to transcend the genre they were fundamental in creating, in the case of The Damned, their will to become something else was always present, they fearlessly covered The Beatles on their early records, permeated a notorious influence of psychedelia (remember their cover of Jefferson Airplane´s White Rabbit? A cover of Love´s Alone Again Or?) and even hired Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason as their producer when Syd Barrett wasn’t available for the job on their Music For Pleasure record, they were punk rock before punk rock, and when there was a term for it, they immediately wanted to transcend that tag, opening the gates for post punk, new wave and gothic rock, always non-conformists, always anarchists, always playing outside their comfort zone, The Damned turned out representing and being more punk rock by their attitude rather than by their sound, and that´s quite a praise!

Evil Spirits is the new record by this legendary band, produced by Tony Visconti (classic glam rock producer of Marc Bolan´s T. Rex and of David Bowie, among others) who might be experiencing a kind of renaissance in the last few years producing records by Marc Almond, Esperanza Spalding, Bowie´s last two outstanding records and this one, now, Visconti production here is not as prominent as that on Bowie´s records, he is more subtle here, as The Damned looks less anarchic, more professional and more obsessed with the clarity on their music than ever, opener Standing On The Edge of Tomorrow starts with a drum and bass sample that might be a Visconti wink towards the late Bowie, original band members Dave Vanian (with his gothic delivery) and the mighty Captain Sensible (with his florid guitar work) are all over the piece, also returned bassist Paul Gray is great on his performance, inspired equally by The Who´s John Entwistle muscular delivery and Tony Sales brutally wild performance, more noticeable on follow up Devil in Disguise, where he is also accompanied by Monty Oxymoron ghoulish keyboard arrangements, which makes me think that the real inspiration behind The Misfits´ 1950 Project were The Damned, with Vanian revealing himself as the true inspiration for Joey Ramone punk rock snarl, and Gray´s Entwistleish bass playing.

Dave Vanian truly shines on the mid-tempo Look Left, an emotive piece that reminds me those late 70s Alice Cooper enormous veins shattering ethylic ballads, with Vanian more than capable in carrying the whole weight of the epic piece, with a Procul Harum like keyboard arrangement by Oxyomoron that ends up with wonderful results, totally heart breaking, with bend in a more confusing mode during Sonar Deceit, where Pinch and Gray remake the Sales brothers drum and bass dynamics during Iggy Pop´s classic Lust For Life, yes, is a good song, but a totally derivable one, even Sensible guitar, almost absent during the whole record (perhaps not so interested on it), makes his presence felt here copying faithfully Carlos Alomar and Ricky Gardiner guitar playing on Iggy Pop´s song, while their 60s garage rock influence burns red hot of Procrastination, where weirdly enough features Vanian imitation of Iggy Pop vocal delivery at some moments and some Captain Sensible guitar fire (at last!).

Although Evil Spirits do include some great songs, is a very uneven record, not enough good songs to keep momentum or make this a great album, a definitely misstep when compared to better recent albums like Grave Disorder or So, Who´s Paranoid? even last moment surprise, the country tinged Daily Liar that come close to The Damned very particular version of the Flying Burrito Brothers is not enough to leave a long lasting smile on the listener, even if is the best playing Captain Sensible is able to deliver thru the whole record, perhaps the answer is on the last song, named I Don’t Care, with Vanian dark crooning surprisingly taking on Scott Walker´s ultra-obscure vocal delivery, a possible sign of some interesting direction to be taken by the band (or by Vanian) in the future? As I hope there will be some more The Damned records in short time, if this is a sort of goodbye or last record, is not what some would expect from such a legendary great band.