The Damned: Smash It Up: The Anthology 1976-1987 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In 1976, the damned released England's first punk single, "New Rose," which - thanks in large part to Rat Scabies' ridiculously over-the-top drumming -- still feels momentous. The flip side was a desecration of "Help" that guitarist Brian James brags in the Smash It Up liner notes was played "the way the Beatles should have done it."

But the Damned were never committed to punk as more than a style. So while the Sex Pistols and the Clash imploded, they lingered for years, transforming through constant lineup changes into a goth-y pop band. A decade after "New Rose," they hit with a keyboard-heavy cover of the Sixties U.K. smash "Eloise," and Scabies' drumming sounded lifted from a Flock of Seagulls album.

Smash It Up takes a chronological approach to the band's first eleven years (they're still at it). Nothing new for hard-core fans; just two discs of all the Damned most will ever need, and then some.

RICHARD ABOWITZ
(From RS 922, May 15, 2003)