Phantasmagoria

The mid-80s version of the Damned took them to new commercial heights as well as enjoyable artistic ones, with Captain Sensible’s departure and Dave Vanian’s now perfectly polished vocal form as elegantly vampiric crooner turning them into goth-pop stalwarts. The hints of punk are just that on Phantasmagoria but the nods to 60s pop, music hall, even spaghetti westerns and epic 80s soundtracks are all well handled, and great songs like “Grimly Fiendish,” “The Shadow of Love,” “Is It A Dream” and more are among the engaging results.