[USED:Cond.AB] Damage

He may have left his name off the album and employed the services of no less than six producers but there's no doubt that Jon Spencer has stamped his authority right across his latest opus, the blustering rock'n'roll record of the year, ‘Damage'. From the opening salvo of the title track where Spencer hollers, “ Can you dig my band! ” you just know you're in for a rollercoaster ride of dirty blues, skyscraping riffs and the vocals of a man who doesn't so much sing, as bleed his songs.

Spencer's output from his days with Pussy Galore, Boss Hog and as part of the Explosion has been nothing short of incredible. From covering the entirety of ‘Exile On Main Street' to dabbling with horror on ‘Plastic Fang' the man has become a living legend, a modern day rock'n'roll icon moulded from the same raw materials that created Keith Richards, Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix. On his latest album he's enlisted some interesting collaborators to produce one of his best albums yet. David Holmes, Dan The Automator, Chuck D, Martina Topley-Bird and DJ Shadow all add their considerable talents to produce a hurricane of noisy, yet catchy works of pure genius. ‘Damage' is, without doubt, one of the albums of 2004, proving once again that Spencer is still one of the finest musicians working in the world today.