They may have entered rock’s history books as the first English punk band to release a single (the staggeringly aggressive “New Rose”), but the Damned always wore the punk mantle with an unmistakable air of discomfort. True, the Damned played three- chord rockers with the same blistering irreverence of their peers (note the unrestrained fury of the live rendition of “Stab Yor Back” included on this compilation), but they were equally capable of crafting twisted power-pop numbers like the tongue-in-cheek “Love Song” and carefree garage-rock pastiches like the organ driven “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today.” Though, The Chaos Years is ultimately an odds-and-sods-style compilation of live tracks, studio rehearsals and outtakes, the performances are uniformly excellent and the selections included showcase a penchant for experimentation that is often overlooked by critics eager to write off the Damned as simply the “First English Punk Band.” The Chaos Years provides some much-needed insight into the true character of this seminal outfit.