DAMNED, (The) Strawberries RSD Vinyl LP

Before The Damned were elder statesmen of British punk, they were already doing things no one else was, and Strawberries (1982) is the proof. It's the record where psychedelia started bleeding into the leather, where Dave Vanian leaned further into the darkness that would eventually consume the whole band's identity, and where the Rat Scabies drum sound hit some kind of deranged peak.

This Record Store Day pressing is strawberry scented pink and red swirl vinyl, which sounds gimmicky until you realise The Damned have always been the ones making punk weird and theatrical in ways the purists hated. Forty years on and Ignite still opens like a threat, Dozen Girls still sounds like a dare, and the whole thing sounds better loud than it has any right to. A cornerstone of gothic punk history on a genuinely ridiculous looking platter.

Side A: Ignite, Generals, Stranger On The Town, Dozen Girls, The. Limited edition RSD pressing. Pink and red swirl vinyl, strawberry scented. LP format.

Fans of: Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, UK Subs, Wire