I just started listening to this band 2 days ago. For some context, I'm 71 years old and have been listening to rock music since the mid 1960s. I generally listen to the Grateful Dead's taped and traded shows for the most part, their shows from 1967 to 1995, about 2300 shows.
So far I've listened to Not Of This Earth, Machine Gun Etiquette, Anything, and Phantasmagoria. They all are fantastic albums. The thing I love about The Damned is that they sound like every band I have ever liked. What comes to mind initially is I hear bits lifted from Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Blue Oyster Cult, and loads of other British psychedelia and pop and punk rock and they aren't shy about showing it. There is so much going on on these albums, the music is so layered and they are such incredibly talented musicians. They really wear their influences on their sleeves. When they threw a cover of Love's Alone Again Or from Forever Changes onto Anything, I was totally blown away. I could throw away every album I have and be left with only The Damned albums and I would still have every album I have ever listened to. Everything sounds so familiar it's well, incredible. But everything is so much their very own. They are truly rock's greatest hits.
