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**The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette**
★★★★☆

By 1979, The Damned had already lived several lifetimes in punk rock years. The first British punk band to release a single ("New Rose"), the first to tour America, and spectacularly, the first to implode in a haze of creative differences and Captain Sensible's increasingly unhinged stage antics. After their messy split in 1978, few expected the band to resurrect themselves, let alone produce what would become their most cohesive and enduring statement. Yet here they were, rising from the ashes like leather-clad phoenixes with "Machine Gun Etiquette," an album that proved punk's court jesters had serious chops beneath the greasepaint and chaos.

The album's genesis reads like a punk rock redemption story. Following the acrimonious departure of original bassist Raymond "Ray Burns" during the "Music for Pleasure" sessions, Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible found themselves at a crossroads. The addition of Algy Ward on bass and the return of Rat Scabies on drums reinvigorated the band's chemistry, while producer Roger Armstrong captured a sound that was simultaneously their most polished and most ferocious. Gone was the deliberately ramshackle approach of their debut; in its place emerged a band that had learned to harness their anarchic energy without sacrificing its essential wildness.

Musically, "Machine Gun Etiquette" finds The Damned expanding their sonic palette while keeping one Doc Marten firmly planted in punk's primal scream. The album opens with the machine-gun staccato of "Love Song," a track that exemplifies the band's newfound sophistication – Vanian's crooning vocals dance over Sensible's angular guitar work, creating something that's part punk anthem, part twisted pop song. It's a mission statement that announces The Damned as more than mere punk provocateurs; they're genuine songwriters with melodies to burn and hooks sharp enough to draw blood.

The title track serves as the album's dark heart, a seven-minute epic that showcases the band's willingness to stretch beyond punk's three-chord orthodoxy. Built around a hypnotic bass line and Scabies' martial drumming, it's a sprawling piece that anticipates the gothic grandeur of their later work while maintaining the urgency that made them punk pioneers. Vanian's vocals shift from whispered menace to full-throated wail, proving he's one of punk's most underrated frontmen – part vampire crooner, part apocalyptic preacher.

"Smash It Up" stands as perhaps the album's most enduring anthem, a gleeful celebration of destruction that somehow manages to be both nihilistic and oddly life-affirming. The song's infectious energy and singalong chorus made it a staple of punk compilations, but its placement here, surrounded by more complex material, reveals layers that casual listeners might miss. It's The Damned in microcosm – seemingly simple on the surface, deceptively sophisticated underneath.

The album's secret weapon might be "I Just Can't Be Happy Today," a melancholic masterpiece that finds beauty in despair. Over a bed of chiming guitars and Scabies' subtle percussion, Vanian delivers one of his most emotionally naked performances, proving that punk could accommodate vulnerability without losing its edge. It's the kind of song that separates the true artists from the mere noise-makers, and The Damned pass the test with flying colors.

Captain Sensible's guitar work throughout deserves particular praise – his playing is both more disciplined and more inventive than on previous outings, finding space for both buzzsaw aggression and unexpected melodic flourishes. Meanwhile, Ward's bass provides a solid foundation that allows the band's more experimental impulses to flourish without losing their moorings.

Four decades on, "Machine Gun Etiquette" stands as a crucial bridge between punk's initial explosion and its evolution into post-punk, gothic rock, and alternative music. While their contemporaries either burned out or sold out, The Damned proved that punk's most cartoonish band was also among its most musically adventurous. The album's influence can be heard in everyone from Bauhaus to The Cult, yet it never sounds dated or derivative.

In an era when punk nostalgia often focuses on the scene's most obvious figureheads, "Machine Gun Etiquette" serves as a reminder that The Damned were always more than mere