‘Pleasure’ by Rick Shaffer Turns Decadence into Post-Punk Ritual –

Rick Shaffer stormed through on a hypnotic dark wave with his latest single, Pleasure, a track pulled from his thirteenth solo album, Rites & Stories. He prowls through corridors haunted by Nick Cave, Joy Division, The Doors, and Sisters of Mercy, yet keeps the static from swallowing him whole by twisting his own wicked signatures into the shadows. Around monochromatic riffs that shimmer like cold steel, he lets his lascivious vocals rise and fall, teasing the same perpetual hunger that once poured from The Cramps, though still carrying his debonair post-punk mark.

The track feels like an incantation, tempting the listener into Shaffer’s nocturnal world where darkness and decadence coalesce. His voice smoulders with menace and seduction, carried by sharp guitars that slice through the haze with precision. It is post-punk stripped of nostalgia, channelled instead into something ritualistic and timeless.

Shaffer’s reputation was forged long before Pleasure; from his early work with Marianne Faithfull, Peter Murphy, and Marc Almond, to a solo catalogue that has run through raw garage blues, proto-punk fervour, and swamp-soaked psychedelia.

Since his 2010 debut, he has never lost that primal hunger for distortion and immediacy, releasing thirteen albums that burn with the same fire, even when the sounds mutate. With Rites & Stories, he offers another chapter in his restless legacy, proving his appetite for chaos remains unquenched.

Pleasure is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast