Machine Gun Etiquette is the third studio album by English punk rock band the Damned. It was released on 2 November 1979 by Chiswick Records. The album was the group's first since reforming with a new lineup of previous members Dave Vanian on vocals, Captain Sensible on lead guitar, Rat Scabies on drums, plus newcomer Algy Ward of heavy metal band Tank on bass guitar on his only album with the band. On Machine Gun Etiquette, the band brought more variety to their usual punk rock to add wide-ranging influences from hard rock and heavy metal to psychedelic rock, a tinge of progressive rock and even classic rhythm and blues. The album also features more fast-paced punk tracks, and has been cited as a 'proto-hardcore' record crucial for the later rise of hardcore punk into the 1980s.
What a record - I felt paralyzed during the entire run! The instrumentation is great, it’s bursting with humor and energy.. And then it’s catchier than the songs most hit-songwriters could even dream of composing. This is everything I want in a punk record.
This is certainly one for my mental list of "Bands I've heard of but never really listened to before now, and now I regret only now listening to them for the first time." Holy cow what a good album this was. A much needed proto-hardcore punk rush that made my whole day. Rowdy, raw, unrelenting, with a nice mix of weirdness and psychedelia. I liked this one a lot, and I wish I'd given The Damned a proper listen sooner. Favourite: Love Song
A joyful, fun, punky album that is light on anger and heavy on messin' around. Some good guitar work. As with all excellent albums it's way too short.
Pretty damn fun punk album. 4.5 but rounded up instead of down. Lots if great energy meaningful lyrics, and a kinetic pace.
This is just about as good a punk album as you will ever hear. It’s ramshackle, rowdy and great fun to listen to, with plenty of tongue in cheek attitude to boot. Dave Vanian's proto-gothic vocal style is really rich and unique, elevating the songs quality-wise to a point where most other punk singers can’t compete. Stylistically, they're all over the place here, with some classic punk sounds laced with all manner of musical styles and a real pop sensibility as well. The band is more musically talented than a lot of their peers, with Captain Sensible in particular serving up some solid guitar work. Also, the band is clearly having fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. You’ve got to admire that. Fave Songs: Plan 9 Channel 7, Love Song, Machine Gun Etiquette, I Just Can't Be Happy Today
Omg. Best 2 days in a row ever. Very close to my favourite Damned record. Maybe even my favourite.
Great early punk album! Might have to revisit classic British punk...
This is the perfect punk album, at least for me. I found it late, to be honest; however, that allowed me to appreciate and value it better. The track list is all killer, no filler. I’m not gonna lie, these hooks are tattooed in my brain: you can find me mumbling “I just can’t be happy today” a Monday morning, whistling Antipope, or telling my wife “this is for you, it’s a love song”. Captain Sensible is a great character, the Damned a punk powerhouse, this album one of the best things ever recorded. The only thing I could ask is the option of giving not 5 stars, but a hundred.
GREAT punk album!!! Everything I love about punk condensed into about half an hour. Pure charm, high energy, and hypnotic melodies, I just love it all. Faves: Love Song, Machine Gun Etiquette, I Just Can’t Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Noise, Noise, Noise
Godamn and fuck yeah! Why have I never heard this before? Most excellent of punk rock.
This album is a microcosm of the history of punk to 1979. There are more traditional punk songs, as well as songs that are clearly incorporating post-punk and new wave sounds. I found this album to be accessible and interesting while providing that sonic link from punk to what it evolved into. The musicianship was much better than a typical British punk band while retaining the lyrical force that typifies that music.
Right from that opening bass line and drum fill on "Love Song" you can hear how this is moving towards hardcore. I definitely prefer more omnivorous punk like this that draws from a wider range of influences.
A masterpiece. I cannot describe what I feel while listening to "Love Song" - I'm not often so deeply moved by any song. Vanian's voice - absolutely exeptional.
I LOVE the Damned. That punk rumbling bass opener of "Love Song" crashing into the lo-fi hi-hat heavy drums! Even back in 1979 they have a synth/prgan and proto goth sound on "I just can't be happy today" "These Hands" - no one likes circus music Dave Vanian's voice is magic on "Plan 9 Channel 7" I prefer Damned Damned Damned - I just noticed that its not on this list... wonder why.
The third album of The Damned. Great and fast proto-hardcore punk influenced with some different musical genres and styles.
This album was a fun listen! “Love Song” was full of clever lyrics with a pretty nice, down to earth sentiment of love at the end. I love the retro keyboard sound in songs like “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today.” It contrasted with the lovely piano opening “Melody Lee,” which then erupts into a poppypunk guitar-driven confection that one might mosh to. \“Anti-Pope” takes down religion with some pretty direct criticism delivered in a surprising affable way. The carousel-driven “These Hands” is certainly a dark take on a circus clown. I need this for my halloween playlist… There’s a lot of talent in this group that elevates this music a bit, and they embrace variety which gives most of the songs a distinct sound while still cohering as a whole. Loved it!
It starts with a charming, "Ladies and Gentlemen. How do?" And then we quickly get all the volume and speed I expect from British punk rockers but with lots of unexpected and delightful moments throughout. Tuneful melodies are discernible from one song to the next. I Just Can't Be Happy Today has some incredible drum fills and ironically happy handclaps. Melody Lee starts with a piano introduction that could easily have come from an Elton John track. These Hands is one of those scary circus calliope deals. Lots of fun variety that is more than just Noise, Noise, Noise. Loved it!
5/5. A blast of a record. Very dynamic, ahead of the curve, and an interesting snapshot of a unique turning point of the band
9/10 really love a good punk album, and this was a good punk album 👍
This album should be *far more famous*. Released only two years after the punk explosion, it predicted everything from post-punk to goth and melodic hardcore punk--not to mention that later craze about killer clowns, lol ("These Hands"). But it's not the only reason *Machine Gun Etiquette* should be remembered today. Its melodies and energy are infectious, its instrumentation is far more sophisticated than it seems at first glance (the organ flourishes are particularly effective and original), and the tunes are catchy as fuck. So it's not so much how ahead of the curve this amazing LP was that makes it a great listen today. It's how damn good it is, period. Each song has something different to offer, even if the overall picture stays cohesive. *Machine Gun Etiquette" is a very *driven* record, to say the least: I tried to find a weak track in it but I couldn't. Hence why I give this one a 5. "Love Song" sounds like The Pogues on steroids, "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" is both weird and wonderful, and the long version of "Smash It Up" at the end of the album crowns everything like the definitive Damned statement that it is. And then, there are all the other cuts, some of them short and biting, others longer and mesmerizing. This record is a gem, enough said. Number of albums left to review: 623 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 186 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 85 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 113
Fkn solid heavy guitar music right here
I never really listed to The Damned as a kid, beyond the stuff that got into the charts (which is tainted by Sensible's solo stuff). They were never played on the Friday Rock Show I guess - the punk label would have made that impossible. Which is odd of course: there's so many echos of bands like Motorhead here; even a touch of Iron Maiden in places. So this was a first listen. I like it. Love Song, Anti-Pope, Plan 9 Channel 7 and Smash It Up are all decent, and despite the oddness in places (better left to the likes of Half Man Half Biscuit) there's no real weakness here (perhaps These Hands?). Some good work all round, and a rhythm section that drives everything forward throughout. I'd listen to this again and it's made me want to explore more of The Damned and related bands. It's probably a 4.5, but, fuck it, I'll give it a 5.
I love this album. It's an essential punk album. I still can't listen to the title track without shouting "Second Time Around!" every time. It's so simple, yet executed so well. Even my young children were singing along to Smash It Up. To be fair, they are toddlers and imitate me frequently AND love making messes. It's such a great album. Damned Damned Damned deserves to be on this list too. It better be.
Although they didn't have as much of an impact as either the Sex Pistols or the Clash, this album shows that the Damned should not be overlooked. On this album, they provide a lot of the building blocks that would soon be adopted by the US hardcore punk scene. There are some great tunes here. Not an out-and-out classic, in my opinion, but showed that there was life in the core punk sound when many of their peers were moving on to post-punk/new wave.
Pretty fucking good. Weird. Some psychedelic touches (particularly in the key parts) that give it an almost new wave/post punk flavour.
Punk with enough psych, pop-ish hook, humor, and rhythm variety to keep this softy/punk-poseur on board for the entire 30 minutes. That was great. Whoever picked up the bass on Anti-Pope is great. No trace of whining. They even do a the British baroque carnival organ nightmare thing tolerably for a track. Tempted to give a 5 but I gave The Doors a 4 and now nothing is calibrated. A-
The Damned, one of the original punk bands at the inception of the genre, aims to go faster and louder with their third record. This sound has markings of the upcoming hardcore punk subgenre of the 80's, but for now we're in a sort of punk limbo. Most of this is really great. Just definitive punk all throughout, save for the strange "These Hands" at the end of side A. I'm a big fan of punk anyway so I was bound to like it anyway.
I didn't think the Damned could record a better album than their debut, Damned Damned Damned, but Machine Gun Etiquette comes close. It takes the energetic raw punk sound of the debut and it expands it with more depth and musical exploration. The songs are solid and overall the record is more consistent. If compared to their previous record, Music for Pleasure, it's a huge improvement and MGE brings back the pleasure in the music for Damned fans.
Never listened to the Damned before. This was fun. Kinda traditional punk spread over a variety of music styles. The mission is surprisingly good. The recording is shit. Overall a really good time.
Great album, packed full of memorable songs and demonstrating what good musicians the Damned are. The album starts strongly with Love Song, Just Can't Be Happy Today and ends strongly with Smash It Up but most of the other tracks hold up well too
This album was a ride. Just when you think you've got it figured out, they switch up styles on you, and they're proficient in all of them. Good stuff. Best track: Smash It Up
Now I'm sad I haven't been listening to The Damned more all these years...
Good punk album, enjoyed Anti-Pope, Love Song and a few others for their lyrics and straight-forward punk style.
Fun and creative punk band
I was introduced to this band/album by the podcast No Dogs in Space, and if you liked this album, I'd really recommend their series on the Damned. This is such a fun album. It's still full-on early punk in terms of the majority of its sound, but other influences are clearly creeping in, especially as the album goes on. In that sense, the album seems like a harbinger of the post punk movement. Overall, it just a lot of fun. Very high energy, pretty lighthearted songs that still manage to be subversive. It flies by too 4/5
I guess that in almost 600 albums, this is one of the first albums that I recognize as a punk album in essence (musically, lyrically, attitude, etc.), without any unnecessary extra (like it happens with many post-punk or hardcore jazz, for example). I liked it very much, and I should check more stuff from The Damned!
Once again a band I've not heard before. Great album though.
Feels like some of these songs could be in any Tony Hawk game. Some of the songs had weird jumps in tempo that were honestly a little confusing -- I had to check my phone to make sure the song didn't skip. There are a handful of songs that are definitely poppy, I'm surprised I have never heard any before. I'm still trying to put my finger on what makes music punk. I did enjoy this album more than most other punk albums we have gotten, especially 70's and 80's British punk. I oftentimes can't hear different accents when people sing in English; this is not one of those cases. It sounds like they are pretending to be Bri'ish. Bonus points for names like Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies. I enjoyed listening to this album. It feels like a stretch to give it a 4, but I'm gonna do it.
That opening bass line... Gave me chills. Listening to this album makes me feel like a college student on a Cali boardwalk in the early 90s. It's just tough for me to be in the mood for punk or find an environment where I listen to punk except at a live show.
Heavy punk, a little bit more polished and poppy than I think the band intended it to be. Better musicianship than I typically associate with punk from this era, the guitar player sounded like he knew more about how to play the guitar than he should have to be a part of this band. This will definitely be both my first and last time listening to this album.
Hell yea. This is so good. Noise, Noise, Noise is a great tune. I love this landmark statement of British punk rock.
Hell yea
Very cool old-school Punk Rock
Absolutely amazing
DAMN!
Loved it
Leuke punk, gevarieerd, goede gitaren
Rechttoe rechtaan punk. Just the way i like it. Short songs that are loud, fast but also variated in melody, so they dont het full at any time. Great Discover. I knew already a few songs of them, but none of this album.
Ich fands sehr gut. Catchy hooks, gute instrumentals dazwischen und durchgängig aufregend. Light 9/10
Another punk masterclass. Not enough good things to say about this album, so I won't try.
Listened to this one a couple weeks ago--near perfect classic punk album. 4.5/5
First (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th) listen. And what a discovery this has been. What a classic, and an album that has stood the test of time. It already starts with the jumpy "Love Song" after being completely overwhelmed by the title track. And then one after another a rare amount of quality tracks come past. Sometimes incredibly catchy, sometimes with the feel to pogo your heart out and even when they take some speed back the songs are superb. This is my introduction to the Damned and are now going to dive into their discography.
I love punk music but it can usually get kind of boring on an album. But I really felt like this one told a musical story, like there was tension and everything
"Machine Gun Etiquette" is the third studio album by English punk band The Damned. It was their first since reforming with Dave Vanian (vocals), Captain Sensible (guitar) , Rat Scabies (drums) and Algy Ward (bass and his only album with the band). The album added more variety to their punk rock with hard rock, heavy metal, pyschedelic rock, prog and 60's R&B. A fairly apt and interesting description is The Beach Boys meets Motörhead with T. Rex and Judas Priest thrown in. It is considered prototypical hardcore punk that would be more prevalent later in the 80's. A guy saying : Ladies and gentlemen, how do" opens "Love Song." A chaotic open and a Lemmy-like drving bass. It thrusts into punk with a melodic guitar. An anti-love song love song as Vanian is basically saying well, here's your love song. "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" has wobbly guitar/keyboards. This is very 60's pyschedelic rock sounding. And, we get a keyboard/organ solo. A dramatic guitar starts "Plan 9 Channel 7." It's a song about a 50's horror movie of the same name and considered one of the worst movies of all time and it's main character Vampira. Layered guitars, pyschedelic pop and it's danceable. Dual guitar solos with underlying keyboards end the song. Quite the trip. They cover The MC5's "Look at You" and give a fusion of punk and jam band. They really kick it in at the end. The final song "Smash It Up (Parts 1 &2)" is slow with a melodic guitar and bass. Hey, they out-cured mid-to-late 80's The Cure. A pop-ish chorus and an organ. Smashing up societal ideals. This album is drving music with all instruments full throttle most of the time. Just fantastic guitar by Captain Sensible. It's punk at heart but adds variety and is very 60's sounding at times. A high recommendation and if not their best, right there.
A witty and joyous riot of perfect punk
Theory: after the first wave of Year Zero albums: Never Mind TB, The Clash, In The City, Rattus Norvegicus - and here Damned Damned Damned - bands took stock with their second album of more punk (interestingly in the case of The Jam and The Clash the second albums were probably the worst ones of their career) before with their third - London Calling, All Mod Cons, Black and White - and here Machine Gun Etiquette - laying out a post-punk musical template that would see out their careers. In the case of the Damned it's as a fizzy, late sixties psychedelic power-pop combo heavy on the organ and melding this with a bit of glam and garage. This album is virtually a greatest hits collection in itself and the one essential Damned album.
Re The Damned: I like several of their other albums (especially Phantasmagoria) but this album is clearly their best, strong songwriting throughout, a clear classic.
Not sure why the government is investing in nuclear reactors when this album has enough energy to power the country.
Seminal!
A damned good album from The Damned. Plus it has Smash It Up on it.
a timeless classic and a huge leap forward out of the creative ferment of punk
This might be The Damned best British punk album ever made. Damn near close to it. Perfect in what it does. Punk rock to its atomic structure. Cited, rightfully as one of the genres most excellent.
Wow, this album slaps. The whole thing is an absolutely fire punk album. I'm surprised I'd never heard of this before, but this is really good British punk, and also coming right off of a Clash album. Big fan of this and it will be entering regular rotation.
New wave and punk rock, pretty damned good haha
Bra tryck !
Pretty fun Brit rock feel.
4/5. Nothing crazy stood out, but it was solid and fun in total
Aparentemente eu gosto da fusão entre pop rock e punk rock
solid punch rock album from the late 70's
Great great great stuff. My second favourite British punk band.
Smash it up!
Den vierten Stern aus Prinzip
Honestly great guitar and bass work throughout, which combine with the high energy of most of the tracks to make for probably the best punk album I’ve heard. Still, it’s punk. The vocals and lyrics are pretty bad in spots and if it was any longer I’d probably have a headache. 8
Damn good early goth rock. I think this has way more bite than I anticipated.
Like!
Fun, quick, and funny punk album . Overall good but I found a few of the tracks grating 7/10
Much more fun than I expected.
Riffs que van desde Motorhead a Extremoduro pasando por T-Rex. Punk setentero 2.0 donde las voces y sus armonías prevalecen sobre todo. Divertido.
The damned continues to cement themselves as my favorite band from the early punk scene. Surprisingly varied, this feels like a transitional album for me. So close to a 5, but a few duds just barely hold it back.
Yes, this is more like it. 1001 albums have really made me realise how much I love punk-rock and garage-rock and when you make a song named 'I Just Can't Be Happy Today', I can't be mad about it, at all. If I had been at a concert where they played and having a beer in my hand, I think I could be happy that day.
I like the blending of genres with early punk going on here. A few of the songs kinda sound like a punk rock Kinks which I dig. The last song kiinda sounds like early Smiths/R.E.M.
Sounds like so much of what I listen to today
Great punk album!
Pretty good early punk! More polished than Sex Pistols, some clear influence on bands like Bad Religion. Elements of The Doors with the keyboards and groove sections.
The damned has been on my radar for a while but this has solidified my fandom.
Carino
Great punk rock album
A real surprise. Never even heard of the Damned before, but i can hear how they influenced a lot of punk I love from later years.
Cool punk album. Wasn't digging the circus music. Good tunes.
not the best punk album but still great. 3.9
Very fun and enjoyable. There were some songs that I wasn't crazy about and would even skip (These Hands), but most were great. I can definitely see myself listening to this again.
Pretty solid album
The Damned. Machine Gun Etiquette. A bunch of men in the middle of a road in New York City. These elements remind me of an American action film, perhaps by Tarantino. And the album itself is the soundtrack. Punk. Never liked the genre but damn this one is so good. It is perhaps because it is guitar driven. There are fast riffs and solos in many songs. The vocals are not that bad unlike other in punk songs. Gets repetitive after a while but still a super fun overall listen.
This is probably the first punk album on the list I've actually really enjoyed. It's heavy sounding while still being melodic and having good hooks, the vocals aren't obnoxious, it all just works
Very punk \m/
jaa niet slecht, daarna wel 'you can't put your arms around a memory' dat opkwam en damn dat is genieten haha
This was great! Seemed a lot more varied and inventive than yer average 70s punk album. Fave track - "Looking at You" is awesome, although apparently it's an MC5 cover. "Melody Lee" was lots of fun too...
Really cool
Detta var fan kanon? Så mycket som jag lyssnar på som kommit så mycket senare som antagligen kan spåras direkt hit. Bra drag, solitt låtmakeri, goa hooks. Positivt överraskad!
Best we've had in a long time - 4/5. Bags of energy, witty lyrics. Still has enough of that rawness that keeps it edgy and punky, but is probably a bit more refined than others in the genre? Definitely preferred it to that early Clash album we had (which if memory serves was from the same year as this).