The Damned – Not Like Everybody Else (earMUSIC) (13th Floor Album Review)
2026 sees The Damned celebrating their 50th anniversary year of creation, and being the first UK punk band to release a record, New Rose (beating The Sex Pistols Anarchy in the U.K by a month).
Marking these auspices events, they have released Not Like Everybody Else, a covers album, group favourites, which also acts as a tribute to original band member Brian James (RIP), the group’s dominant scribe on their first two albums.
Not Like Everybody Else is a recording reunion too, the band line up for the album hasn’t been together since 1995. With Rat Scabies on drums for the first time in 40 years, Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Paul Gray (and keyboardist Monty Oxymoron) Not Like Everybody Else is a hat tip by The Damned to the music, that inspired the original four (Vanian, Sensible, Scabies & James) to create the genesis of UK punk in the 1970s.
Not Like Everybody Else has a sound of energy, capturing the urgency of 1970s punk, but rooted in the Northern Soul, Garage – Psychedelia of the 1960s/early 1970s that the four members grew up with. The kick-off track (and first single) is R. Dean Taylor’s 1967 hit There’s A Ghost In My House, mired in The Damned’s gothicism. I’m thwarted by The Fall’s version every time I hear it, its impact is sadly stunted. However the second single, See Emily Play (Pink Floyd) is a truly tremendous version, all the elements come together and creates a euphoric version. Third single, Joe Cocker’s Summer In The City is also far superior beast, The Damned’s version achieves the rare outcome of topping the original, (we’ll that’s what this ‘never-a-fan’ of the Joe Cocker original thinks)
It’s on the aforementioned tracks like Iggy & the Stooges – Gimme Danger, and the shadowy When I Was Young (The Animals), that this album shines, achieves the title’s goal, reiterating the status of The Damned, yes, a band that came out of, helped create the UK punk rebellion, but were always going to be, and achieved so much more.
Simon Coffey
Not Like Everybody Else is released Friday, Jan 23rd. Pre-save the album HERE
