Saturday, July 6, 2019

The 1985 Listening Post - The Damned - Phantasmagoria

The Damned - Phantasmagoria

#284/918
July 1985
The Damned
Phantasmagoria
Genre: Goth Rock
4 out of 5


Highlights:
Street of Dreams
Shadow of Love
Is It a Dream


Maybe I just like dave Vanian’s voice more than Captain Sensible’s. I haven’t loved anything of theirs since Machine Gun Etiquette and I really hated Sensible’s solo outing. 
The is a lot more Goth-y and theatrical than I recall them being. It’s moodier and more evocative than their previous stuff. Is “Sanctum Sanctorum” a wee bit self-important? Umm…yeah. But it’s still more interesting to me than a lot of what came before. Is it fair to compare a band to their previous offerings? I don’t know. It’s the only frame of reference I have. If this was the first Damned record I’d ever heard I don’t know if I would enjoy it as much. 
Side Two opens with the single “Is It a Dream” and they pull off quite a Psychedelic Furs impression. And “Grimly Fiendish” is what you would get if XTC went full goth. 


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYncIHyPK2W5aaGWFqYHyzAfoxncddRhC

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