Strawberries (40th Anniversary Edition) CD

The Damned are synonymous with the 1977 punk sound, with their tracks 'New Rose' and 'Neat Neat Neat' perhaps their best and arguably among the most iconic punk songs of all time. But ill content to rehash old tropes they set about writing more upbeat melodic tunes for Strawberries, which challenged their older fanbase at the time, who were used to thrashy three-chord rabble-rousing punk. The Damned frontman, David Vanian, is cited in the band's biography as saying that fans weren't up for the new material and said: "It's like giving strawberries to a f**king pig, this gig, you know?", which is where the album title came from. Nevertheless, this album did well in the charts with the sound of harmony vocals, cellos, sitars and brass sections, spliced into their hard punk DNA, delighting critics. It was also great timing - they were riding the coattails of guitarist Captain Sensible's solo success and number one single shortly before this album came out in 1982. Some 42 years later, the record is still a standout and in hindsight a deserved success that proves throwing caution to the wind and not delivering exactly what their fans expected of them was still the best way to go about business.