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Forever Changes

The release of The Damned's version of 'Alone Again Or' would doubtless have prompted someone on the radio to blow the dust off the original & broadcast that too: I don't think I was aware of the song before then. In the same time-frame, I would have read about Forever Changes in a book I never bought (as mentioned a few days ago). My curiosity was piqued. Another couple of years passed, however, before I found and bought a copy of the album on cassette.

There are works of art that encompass both the sublime and the ridiculous: I think Forever Changes is just such an opus. On one hand it begins with the singularly lovely 'Alone Again Or' and ends with the glorious 'You Set The Scene'; on the other hand along the way there's the drippy earnestness of 'Andmoreagain' and 'Old Man', not to mention the infamous opening lyrics of 'Live and Let Live'.

I don't think I ever owned Forever Changes on CD, so when I received a copy of the 2015 re-press (on white vinyl) as a Christmas gift, that was the first time I'd heard the whole album in at least seventeen years: it was as ridiculous, and as sublime as ever. Other favourite tracks of mine: 'A House Is Not A Motel', 'The Daily Planet', 'Between Clark And Hilldale' and 'Bummer In The Summer'.
 

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