The Damned have announced they’ll release their first album in 10 years on April 13.
The follow-up to 2008’s So, Who’s Paranoid? will be titled Evil Spirits and launch via Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records.
Guitarist Captain Sensible says of the Tony Visconti-produced album: “We deliberately recorded the album retro style. The same way our debut album was made, basically.
“There’s something wonderful about the 70s sounds – glam, rock and punk records, they all sound so great and Tony specialises in beautifully crafted old school production.
“He had us all playing live, bashing it out in the same room with a focus on getting the initial band version of each song as close as possible to the finished thing.”
To mark the album announcement, The Damned have also released the single Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow.
Frontman Dave Vanian calls the track “very optimistic, even though it’s about a dark subject” and adds: “As an artist, you can’t help but reflect the times, because that’s what art does. I think we always do it, but in a slightly different way.
“So a song like Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow may seem quite joyous and uplifting musically, but some of the lyrics might be about quite dark things.
“That’s what I’d like to think this album is – an uplifting album, not a moaning old album – not ‘this is terrible, and that’s terrible’, and then not offering any answers. It’s more a case of, ‘If we get it together, maybe we could change things a bit.’”
The Damned will head out on a 17-date UK tour later this week. Find the dates below, along with the Evil Spirits tracklist and cover art.
- The Damned live review: The original punks show no signs of slowing down
- How The Damned wrote Phantasmagoria
- The Audio Archive – exclusive to TeamRock+ members
- The Damned in conversation: 40 years of Damned Damned Damned
The Damned Evil Spirits tracklist
- Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow
- Devil In Disguise
- We’re So Nice
- Look Left
- Evil Spirits
- Shadow Evocation
- Sonar Deceit
- Procrastination
- Daily Liar
- I Don’t Care
The Damned 2018 UK tour dates
Jan 26: Newcastle O2 Academy
Jan 27: Dundee Caird Hall
Jan 28: Glasgow O2 Academy
Jan 30: Leeds O2 Academy Leeds
Jan 31: Manchester Academy 1
Feb 01: Birmingham O2 Academy
Feb 03: Leicester O2 Academy
Feb 04: Nottingham Rock City
Feb 06: Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall
Feb 07: Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Feb 09: Cardiff Great Hall
Feb 10: Bristol O2 Academy Bristol
Feb 11: Bournemouth O2 Academy
Feb 13: Southampton O2 Guildhall
Feb 14: Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
Feb 16: Koko London
Feb 17: London, O2 Forum
