C/D The Damned-Phantasmagoria

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I don't know if it's just been beaten into my head since I was young with reapeated listens, making this truly a great record or it is just the worst thing ever, I can't tell anymore. I really, really like this record, It's over-the-top cheese is almost laughable, but there are some great songs on here, right?

I dont really know the rest of their catalog, other than the "hits".

― dead dead bird, Friday, 8 November 2002 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Not heard it in many years but suspect that it is reasonsable combination of pop tunes with a fair whiff of fromage.

They are touring again and I produced the followign conversaiton stopper:
Friend: I wodner will they have Captain Sensible
Me: Sod that if they don't have Roman Jugg on bass it isn;lt the real deal.

― tigerclawskank, Friday, 8 November 2002 16:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, Captain Sensible is back in the fold.

PHANTASMAGORIA is great on its own, but as a "Damned record", it'll always suffer from comparisons to their earlier work. That said, you'd have to be a complete ass to to deny the syruppy, histrionic panache of "Street of Dreams" or the gloriously over-the-top organ/rainy night intro to "Sanctum Sanctorum."

So....CLASSIC, by god!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 8 November 2002 17:25 (twenty-three years ago)

It's got some wonderfully dramatic "goth" moments (Shadow Of Love, Is It A Dream, Grimly Fiendish, i.e. the singles mainly) but as an album it isn't a patch on The Black Album or Stawberries....

Yes, yes, I know, I'm in a minority of one yet again, but I do actually prefer The Black Album and Stawberries to Damned Damned Damned and Machine Gun Etiquette.

Sod Roman Jugg, I want to see Paul Gray back on bass!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 8 November 2002 17:27 (twenty-three years ago)

"but I do actually prefer The Black Album and Stawberries to Damned Damned Damned and Machine Gun Etiquette."

I think it's a testament to the Damned's ecclecticism and versatility that these albums are all do diverse.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 8 November 2002 17:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Couple of the b-sides from Phantasmagoria are worth seeking out too. Always thought this album was unfairly dumped on over the years.

Stewart, you're not a minority of one - I prefer The Black Album by far.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Friday, 8 November 2002 18:27 (twenty-three years ago)

classic in my book, this album represents the side of goth that I prefer--tongue-in-cheek, humorous and really catchy.

Bauhaus style goth can get pretty dreary after a while, although I suppose that's the point sometimes.

― webcrack (music=crack), Friday, 8 November 2002 23:35 (twenty-three years ago)

my feeling is that the only good Damned album is the first one. It's got loads of punk classics on it and it charges through them at '90 miles an hour.

the only other Damned album I have heard was not very good.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Sunday, 10 November 2002 14:35 (twenty-three years ago)

As Alex indicates above, it's a major mistake to think that if you've heard one Damned album you've heard them all.

Damned Damned Damned and Machine Gun Etiquette are fairly similar stylistically and Phantasmagoria and Anything are fairly similar , but each of the other five is quite distinctive.

"the only other Damned album I have heard was not very good."

Music For Pleasure and Anything are both pretty unexceptional; I'm Alright Jack And The Beanstalk (aka Not Of This Earth in the US and elsewhere) is a complete pile of shit.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 10 November 2002 16:40 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

Okay now this is something I want to discuss:

About 1:50 into "Grimly Fiendish", there is a curious falsetto line of melody that sounds SUSPICIOUSLY ripped off from The Who's classic "Our Love Was" from their equally classic "Sell Out" album. You know the part where they go "love love love love love love love love..."

Now who wants to take me on with Blur fists?

Also I am starting to get really really angry about the fact that I can never search any Who threads on this search engine. I am about to start new Who threads, beware. You can't even search the title of their latest album and come up with anything. It's pathetic.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 19 April 2008 14:32 (seventeen years ago)

"grimly fiendish" is my favorite goofy frolicking with big poofy black hair and dracula cape goth pop song EVER.

― Emily Bjurnhjam, Sunday, 20 April 2008 16:03 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

is it weird that i can't stop listening to this album?

― Honey, I squirted jizz all over the baby (the table is the table), Tuesday, 21 September 2010 19:28 (fifteen years ago)

Bizarre -- former ILXor Matt M. was talking about "The Shadow of Love" today on Twitter.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 September 2010 19:33 (fifteen years ago)

HIVE MIND. everyone i know who has been in its presence recently has been like, 'this is secretly one of my favorite Damned albums.' probably its cheesy goth-wave punk darkness.

― Honey, I squirted jizz all over the baby (the table is the table), Tuesday, 21 September 2010 19:39 (fifteen years ago)

I love this album so much, even if I later discovered how much it pales in comparison to (most of) the albums that came before. But it still holds a place in my heart.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 03:29 (fifteen years ago)

And yeah, that's me 7 years ago telling you to seek out the b-sides. Still like this album a lot. More goths needed to have a sense of humor about the whole thing and of course the Damned only needed one album to tell them that.

Really though, this album is more like a Damned version of a latter day Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry album. (even down to the supermodel cover)

― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 05:14 (fifteen years ago)

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