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The Darkness Album: “Permission to Land”
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Permission to Land |
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Release Date:2003-08-05
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Type:Unknown
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Genre:Rock, Hard Rock, Metal
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Explicit Lyrics:Yes
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UPC:825646081769
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Review - Yahoo! Music - Lyndsey Parker :
Imagine a rock 'n roll Xanadu where men with flowing Rapunzel tresses, their unspeakably manly bulges straining the seams of their nothing-left-to-the-imagination harlequin catsuits, ride unicorns across cocaine-and-glitter-dusted fields as they strum flying-V guitars. Imagine if Andrew W.K. sang like Freddie Mercury on a helium-balloon binge. Imagine if Van Halen had replaced Diamond David Lee Roth with the bastard lovechild of Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine and Skid Row pretty-boy Sebastian Bach instead of with Sammy Hagar. Or just imagine if Tenacious D weren't a joke band. Hell, imagine if Spinal Tap weren't a joke band. Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? Yes, nowadays the word "metal" is usually preceded by "nu"--that irritating prefix that implies mopery, misery, and an all-around of lack of fun--but thankfully, now a British rock 'n' roll brigade ironically named the Darkness has come riding up on white swans to deliver a magnum opus of balls-to-the-wall, Def-Leppardian hair-metal that Rick Allen would probably give his other arm to make. The misleadingly doomy moniker is definitely the only thing ironic about the Darkness. Spawned from a karaoke contest in which unitard-sheathed frontman Justin Hawkins impressed his future bandmates with his dog-whistle-shrill interpretation of the Queen songbook, the Darkness seem perfectly preserved in spandex, blissfully unaware that it is no longer 1986. In their world, Tommy Lee still drums for the Crue, Rikki Rachtman still hosts Headbanger's Ball, David Lee Roth still has hair, Slash 'n' Axl are still making beautiful music together in some groupie-infested opium den overlooking Hollywood's Sunset Strip, and Kiss never took their makeup off in the first place. It's enough to make anyone wish for such simpler times... In all honesty, the Darkness's pop-metal debut, Permission To Land, shouldn't really work: Eighties stadium rock is perhaps the most maligned subgenre in all of popular music, so if the Darkness gleefully borrow from this era the way a more "credible" band like the White Stripes pillages the blues, they should, logically, come across as one big Aqua-Net-soaked joke. But Permission To Land is actually good enough to motivate more than a few curious, intrepid listeners to give their dusty old Dokken albums another spin. What it all comes down to is the songwriting on virally infectious ballroom-blitzkriegs like "Growing On Me" and "Friday Night," which, were they warbled in a voice other than Hawkins's glass-shattering falsetto (admittedly an acquired taste), would be recognized for the pure, perfect pop that they are. In fact, the brilliantly titled love-hurts/bites power ballad "Love On The Rocks With No Ice" is such a modern-day equivalent of Def Leppard's 1981 smash "Bringin' On The Heartbreak," Mariah Carey ought to cover it as well (the song's already in her stratospheric octave, anyway). The Darkness have arrived to rock us like hurricanes, just when we need them most. Permission to land? Permission granted. It's the Darkness's planet now. Review - :
Upon its U.K. release in summer 2003, {^Permission to Land}, the debut album from spandex-clad retro metalheads {$the Darkness}, was a surprise success, hitting the British charts at number two (behind only {$Beyoncé}'s {^Dangerously in Love}). After hearing {^Permission to Land}, it's easier to understand why the British public went crazy for it, and for {$the Darkness}. The album is more or less straightforward {\pop/rock} with some '80s {\metal} window-dressing, and {$the Darkness} themselves live up to traditional notions of what a {\rock} band should be: louche, decadent, and harboring a don't-bore-us-get-to-the-chorus mentality. While the band is far from ironic in its homages to {$Kiss}, {$Judas Priest}, and {$Queen}, {$the Darkness} certainly are campy (and with a list of influences like that, they'd almost have to be), with a uniquely British sensibility, personified by singer {$Justin Hawkins}. A one-man campaign to bring back the unitard as fashionable {\rock} gear, {$Hawkins} sings about sex, drugs, and Satan with the voice of a castrato, backed by arena-sized riffs and rhythms. {$The Darkness} would be an utter failure if the band didn't write good songs, but miracle of miracles, they do. The first two-thirds of {^Permission to Land} is nearly flawless, an eerily realistic simulation of '80s {\metal} and '70s {\glam} that manages to sound familiar but not rehashed. {&"Black Shuck"} revels in pseudomystic gobbledygook like "Flames licked round the sacred spire"; on the great single {&"Get Your Hands off My Woman,"} {$Hawkins} sings "woooomaaan" higher than most women probably could. {&"Growing on Me"} (which includes the great lyric "I want to banish you from whence you came") and {&"I Believe in a Thing Called Love"} are tightly crafted songs that would sound good in almost any style, while {&"Givin' Up"} is one of the jauntiest songs about heroin ever written. Even the prerequisite power {\ballad}, {&"Love Is Only a Feeling,"} stays on the fun side of cheesy, adrift on clouds of strummed guitars and gooey backing harmonies. The album has such a strong beginning and middle that it's not entirely surprising that {^Permission to Land} runs out of steam near the end, although {&"Stuck in a Rut"} is a crazed enough rocker -- complete with demonic laughter -- to nearly rival the album's earlier songs. Softer songs like {&"Friday Night"} and {&"Holding My Own"} make the collection unusually {\ballad}-heavy; if anything, {$the Darkness} could stand to rock a little harder. Even though {^Permission to Land} isn't quite as {\metal} as its singles suggested it might be, the album is surprisingly good, especially considering how bad the band's '80s {\metal} revival could have been. It's hard to say whether or not {$the Darkness} will take off in the States the way they did in their homeland; {$Hawkins}' over-the-top vocals aside, the band may be hurt by the fact that most {\metal} and {\hard rock} popular in the U.S. is more concerned with brooding and angst than with having fun. But having fun is what {^Permission to Land} is all about, even if it's just a guilty pleasure. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
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