I'll be damned (did you see what I did there?), this is a really good album. Punk at heart, well executed, sufficiently varied and long enough for a punk record (almost a double album in punk standards), with many other influences. Really enjoyed it.
At the end of the 70s some punk bands went political, whilst others disappeared up their own nihilism. The Damned took a different direction, with this album that veers around like a dodgem car in a ramshackle fun fair. It opens with a clip of the actor who played Albert Tatlock on Coronation Street, lurching into a proper punk love song, followed by songs that range from proto-hardcore thrash to heavy metal to lovely piano interludes. The lyrics pay tribute to characters from the Bunty (a 70s girls comic, m’lud) to Vampira from Plan 9 from Outer Space, and a thoughtful evisceration of organised religion. There are some cheeky snippets of studio banter, with the band clearly having a whale of a time. The album closer Smash it Up (Parts One and Two) was apparently banned by a pearl clutching BBC committee, but is actually a charming instrumental leading into a joyous riot. Punk-tastic!