The Damned - Smash It Up: The Anthology 1976-1987

Of the first wave of British punk groups, The Damned got there first, and stuck around a lot longer than the vast majority of their peers, leaving behind a large and sometimes puzzling recorded legacy -- playing the band's first single ("New Rose") and their last ("In Dulce Decorum") back to back, you'd be hard-pressed to guess that both tunes were credited to the same act. Smash It Up: The Anthology 1976-1987 is an ambitious two-CD set which attempts to present a coherent picture of the band's initial run over the course of two and a quarter hours, and for the most part it succeeds. Read More