Album: The Darkness
Permission To Land, Must Destroy Music/Mushroom
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Whether they're serious or not, one thing's for sure about The Darkness, and that's that they know how to rock. If the sound of Seventies and early-Eighties cock-rock doesn't make you want to jump on the nearest table and unleash your air guitar, then this record is probably not for you. The Suffolk-bred Justin Hawkins (he was brought up in Lowestoft) sings in the kind of wailing falsetto that would make Robert Plant's hair stand on end, while his brother, the guitarist Dan Hawkins, betrays a childhood spent studying AC/DC, Judas Priest, Def Leppard and Van Halen in forensic detail. The Darkness aren't backward in coming forward, either - the Lycra-clad singer's greatest ambition is to be fired on stage as a human cannonball at Wembley Stadium. Permission to Land has it all - pulverising power chords, rolling choruses, lengthy guitar solos and suitably ghastly ballads. Songs such as "Get Your Hands off My Woman", "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" and - my favourite - "Love on the Rocks with No Ice" are essays in shallowness. It's hard to see where they can go from here. While The Darkness are more than a novelty act, their appeal is likely to be short-lived. When the so-called new rock revolution finally creeps back into the hole where it came from, the Suffolk quartet may find themselves left out in the cold. Let's hope they make it to Wembley before then.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments