Kicking off proceedings is "A Nation Fit For Heroes", which paces along with kick-ass energy and style. It's very Stranglers sounding, and has a bit of an anti-war-anti-monarchy-anti-establishment theme. It's punk rock for Observer readers who can tap their foot along while drinking that vintage Shiraz. Well, not everyone liked gobbing, some of us were brought up proper, you know.

"Under The Wheels" is much of the same mould – but then – BY GOD – have The Damned spent their collective savings on a West End show season ticket? Because "Dr Woofenstein" has one of those big sing-a-long choruses, a dramatic piano sound, and would be fantastic as the music to the puppet show in Forgetting Sarah Marshall or anything involving The Muppets. You've got to hear it to believe it.

"Diamonds" has an irritatingly catchy tune, melody, lyrics, very nearly OCD-inducing. 'Can you call it love without diamonds?/I don't give a stuff about shallow diamonds.' And some band called the Fletcher Munson Curve has something to do with it too... The other ear-itch on this album is "Little Miss Disaster" with more sassy lyrics, and a poppy melody. I wonder if the title will make it to the next generation of Roger Hargreaves books? e.g. Little Miss Disaster Bunks Off School.

The one tune on the album that induces the involuntary gag reflex is "Maid For Pleasure". 'She cleans/And she scrubs/But it's not enough'. On first listen it sounds like a dubious sadomasochistic relationship based on doing housework, but oh, is it a man dressed up as the 'wife'? Oh well, that's OK then. You can put the paper bag away now.

But it's back to the West End for "Nature's Dark Passion", a gothic ballad that's guaranteed to give the Goth girlies a fit of the vapours until some absinthe is wafted under their noses. But its lyrics of unrequited love are succinct, clear and defined: 'I lie here awake/Did I make a mistake?'

The CD finishes up with a tribute to Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, "Dark Asteroid". To explain – Barrett went 'rock 'n' roll' and was diagnosed as paranoid following excessive amounts of intoxicating substances, hence the album's title. "Dark Asteroid" is also a tribute to The Damned themselves. Singer Dave Vanian's versatility shines here, singing in a far higher register than expected – or was that the Vicks Sinex? It's psychedelic pop whimsy that skips along – and then goes spiralling off into an instrumental tangent, with Captain Sensible invoking a seagull and a Moomin or two with his guitar sound acrobatics. So, Who's Paranoid? Well, The Damned have no reason to be – it's a damn fine listen.