THE DARKNESS



Permission To Land (2003)

Rating (Out of 10): 9

Tracklisting: Black Shuck/Get Your Hands Off My Woman/Growing On Me/I Believe In A Thing Called Love/Love Is Only A Feeling/Givin?Up/Stuck In Rut/Friday Night/Love On The Rocks With No Ice/Holding My Own

Lets get something straight right from the start - The Darkness are THE most original band to come out of the UK since the Smiths. I realize what an outrageous statement that is to make, and I’m sure it’ll have many a Morrissey fan screaming and waving their gladioli in disbelief; but Morrissey fan’s don’t come much more fanatical than me, so I wouldn’t say such a thing if it wasn’t true. For although, music-wise the two bands are poles apart, the similarities in other areas are incredible ?tongue-in cheek lyrics, humour, satire, social commentary, a charismatic front-man. Smart, funny and in-your face, Justin Hawkins is the Morrissey for the lycra-clad glam-rock generation! Greatly influenced by an eclectic range of 70’s and 80’s bands such as The Cure, Deep Purple, and Whitesnake, The Darkness almost come across as a glam-rock tribute act, but they prevent themselves from being merely a novelty act by injecting just the right amount of originality into their songs. Satire and humour definitely plays a huge role in their music. The Darkness don’t take themselves too seriously, and many of the tracks on ‘Permission To Land' are hilarious, not least ‘Get your hands off my woman motherfucker'(to give it its full title). Justin Squeals and screams his way through the song to the hilarious climax of ‘mothafuuuuckkkkkeeeeerrrrrrrr' Justin’s voice is incredible all the way through the album. Squealing and screaming one minute, employing perfect falsetto the next, and all the time managing to sound like a Robert Smith impersonator.

“Permission To Land' opens with ‘Black Shuck' a pretty straightforward rock number which gets the album off to a great start. It is by no means the highlight of the album, but it does start things off as they mean to go on, giving us an insight in to what s to come. . ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman' is possibly one of the most hilarious songs I’ve ever heard. The lyrics are humorous and satirical, the vocals are hilarious, Justin squeals, and screams and gives an amazing vocal performance. ‘I Believe In a Thing Called Love' is an amazing song which again uses a combination of satirical lyrics and screeching vocals to produce a highly addictive track. This is followed by ‘Love is only a feeling' which provides one of the more serious moments on ‘Permission To Land? proving that the Darkness aren’t merely a novelty act. It follows in the tradition of the heavy rock power ballad, and is a great track, with some really sincere, tender vocals, which shows off a softer side to Justin and the boys. ‘Givin' Up' is the third song in the trilogy of great tracks than provide a strong middle section to the album. Again, it has a humorous quality, partly due to the explicit swearing, “giving up giving up giving a fuck" and partly due to Justin Hawkins ability to perform and give his everything into a track, making it come alive, making you want to jump up and down and sing along to every single word. (If this review is turning into an application for The Justin Hawkins Fan club, I apologise, but I can’t help it. I adore the man!) Another great track on ‘Permission To Land' is ‘Friday Night'which in my opinion is the strongest candidate for the next Darkness single. It is a fabulous track, heavily influenced by The Cure to the extent that if you turned on to it accidentally without realizing what you were listening to, you’d probably think it WAS The Cure! It almost comes across like ‘Friday I’m in Love Part II' and Justin’s vocals sound so much like Robert Smith it’s unbelievable.

When the Darkness first came on to the music scene earlier this year, they were immediately embraced by the music industry who hailed them as the best new band around, and although at first the hype seemed strange to believe why these young goofy looking boys dressed in lycra could be any good, on listening to ‘Permission To Land' you immediately realize what all the fuss was about. It is by mo means a perfect album, and there are a few tracks such as ‘Love On The Rocks With No Ice' and ‘Holding My Own' which don’t quite live up to the promise of the rest of the album, but on the whole ‘Permission To Land' is a highly accomplished piece of work and shows the darkness to be highly original, and extremely talented, and you can just tell that they’re going to get better and better.

Send A Comment

Oleg Sobolev - 05/11/03
"You know, I always was the big fan of whatever "The" band NME sells to me, but The Darkness don't really sound great to my ears. They are, like, a simple hard-rock band, fun, perhaps, but nothing Earth-shattering or overly emotional, as I like it. As for "The most original group to come out of the UK since The Smiths", you have probably forgotten Stone Roses and Radiohead. But that's me."



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