Monday, February 08, 2010

The Damned “Machine Gun Etiquette” (1979)

Up to a point, there is no faulting the genius of the Damned, and Machine Gun Etiquette is the culmination of their (r)evolution. A debatable point, of course, as their Damned Damned Damned album could be considered their first, last AND greatest... BUT, Machine Gun finds the band expanding their cheeky short-loud-fast into something... well, grander! They expanded their song writing beyond what, at the time, had already become cliché 1-2-3-4 punk rock. Perhaps it was Captain Sensible's (melodic) move to guitar? Maybe they were just getting (ahem) older? I don't know for sure, but tracks like Plan 9 Channel 7, Love Song...even the faultless cover of MC5's Looking At You, were some of the first punk songs I could call...(don't laugh) beautiful! And the songs still hold up, I can put this on anytime and it makes me really happy. –Nipper

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