Give Daddy the Knife Cindy (a serious contender for Greatest Album Title Ever) is a candy-coated electric love letter to ‘60s garage rock from The Damned, who cut this tribute album to their fave cavestompers on the Big Beat label way back in the dark days of 1984. Dave Vanian (lurking behind the Naz Nomad moniker) adapts his gravedigger croon well to the material, especially the Litter’s “Action Woman” and Them’s “I Can Only Give You Everything,” though his imitation of Sky Saxon’s marble-mouthings on the Seeds’ “The Wind Blows Your Hair” is an ambitious failure. The band (including Captain Sensible as Sphinx Svenson and Rat Scabies as Nick Detroit) tear into the tunes with more glee and volume than they’d lent to their then-recent releases, and manage to make the two originals (including a hilarious faux “live” number, “Just Call Me Sky”) sound as authentically acid-soaked as the covers. The retro archaeologists at Dionysus have done Damned fans and psych-garage collectors a serious solid by digging up this long-lost dance party, and doubly so for reissuing the vinyl in its original electric purple color. __________________________________________________

-Paul Gaita