The Damned - Music for Pleasure

A Damned Parable

In retrospect this album is quite good, but if anything I agree that it's the Damned's most Americanized release; coming off like BACK IN THE USA MC5 and TOO MUCH TO SOON New York Dolls having a knife fight in an alley...errr... onstage during a Bowery production of WEST SIDE STORY. That is; killer guitar, plenty attitude; but only raw in a very premeditated way. Everything is so clean and separated it's like Nick Mason worked out the distance between the guys in the studio with a tape measure and a protractor; there's no real meshing of the sound into a solid whole. The emasculating production buffs a few too many edges off and it often slips into sounding hollow; like a staged knife fight as opposed to a real one. On top of that, "Idiot Box," "Your Eyes" and "You Know" definitely have their own merits, but interrupt the flow of an album that needed to just bash ahead full steam. November 10, 2007

clearing things up

Let's deal with some common misconceptions....or reviewers simply
regurgitating what they've heard or read.

1)Everyone loves to bring up the fact that Nick Mason produced it and helped to ruin it, but noone seems to explain what exactly was BAD about the production. Fact is, it sounds fine. It doesn't sound like the first album, but what does?! It's not muddy, vocals are clear, guitars sound pretty good. The songs come through....maybe they're just not all that great(?).

2) The Damned "disowned" the album. Maybe so, but why? The production? If that were the case, they would have been playing more
of these songs live over the years...but they didn't. They leaned towards their other albums. They must of thought the SONGS on Music For Pleasure were simply not up to par.

3) Second guitarist Lu - not sure what he even does on the this album. I hear Brian James slashing chords and ripping leads. Again, blame the songs if you must.

My "opinion": I like the album, but then again I love The Damned. Damned Damned Damned and Machine Gun Etiquette are better - start with those. August 19, 2007

Not their best

While it tends to unfairly ignored, Damned Damned Damned's follow-up was always going to be difficult, and Music for Pleasure isn't nearly as good.

Having said that, it still has it's good points. Problem Child and Stretcher Case wouldn't have sounded out of place on Damned Damned Damned and Idiot Box is the highlight of the album. But none of the songs on Music for Pleasure have the energy of New Rose or Neat Neat Neat, and it's not the best place to start if you want to hear The Damned at their best.

When I first got into The Damned, I went for Damned Damned Damned, then Machine Gun Etiquette, and this was one of the last I came to. It's still good for the die-hard fan, but if you consider yourself a casual fan, go for Damned Damned Damned or Machine Gun Etiquette first.

March 20, 2006

The Damned's underrated second album.

Music for Pleasure (1977) was the Damned's follow up to the surprise sucess of Damned, Damned, Damned. Instead of repeating themselves, they decided to go into a new direction. Their was a struggle within the band, Brian James wanted to write the songs whilst the other band members wanted to write some tracks of their own. James brought in Lu Edmonds (guitar) to add a dual guitar attack to the band. A truce of sorts was made and the band went into the studio to record.

Music for Pleasure (taken from a budget comp. disc) was the title of the album. The songs were supposed to be psychedelic in nature but they turned out resembling Stooges' sound alikes. James was a huge fan of the late band and he even added a saxaphone (Lol Coxhill) on one of the tracks (You Know) giving the album an even more Stooges' sound. The songs are short and to the point with some catchy lyrics and beat. But the twin guitar attack is not apperent on the album.

To pad out the disc; Help, Sick of Being Sick and Sing-a-long-a-Scabies were added on the CD releases. Not as bad as people make it out to be. Take a gamble and purchase a disc today!

Highly recommended.
May 29, 2005

The black sheep of the early Damned releases

Originally released in 1977 and produced by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason (Shel Talmy was going to be the original producer but recording sessions broke down so Nick was brought in) It was quickly panned by music critics and disowned by the band themselves. On this second release the band are joined for the first and last time by second guitarist Robert "Lu" Edmonds (Brian James insisted he join). There are a few gems among them Politics One way love Problem Child and Help (Beatles Cover). I have heard in a few audio interviews done by Rat Scabies the band originally wanted Pink Floyd's Roger "Syd" Barrett to produce the album he may have said yes but pulled out at the lasr minute. On a side note the Sex Pistols also wanted Roger "Syd" Barrett to produce their album Never Mind The Bollocks but declined or something along them lines. After this release the band broke up in early 1978 and reformed in late 1978 this time without Brian James or Lu (who I think left anyway because he wasn't liked much by the rest of the band) and in 1979 released their definitive and classic album titled Machine Gun Etiquette. While Music for Pleasure isn't a favorite among many people its a million times better than Not of this earth from 1996 aka I'm alright Jack and the beanstalk. January 8, 2005

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