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Permission to Land

The Darkness - Permission to Land Audio CD

A fair review of the The Darkness "Permission to Land" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Darkness reviews here, or go back to the The Darkness tabs.

Band: The Darkness
Title: Permission to Land
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-09-16
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Black Shuck 2: Get Your Hands Off My Woman 3: Growing on Me 4: I Believe in a Thing Called Love 5: Love Is Only a Feeling 6: Givin' Up 7: Stuck in a Rut 8: Friday Night 9: Love on the Rocks With No Ice 10: Holding My Own

Hilarious, but not a joke.
Just in case they don't reunite for a long while, It's worth noting that this album was and always will be a classic that deserves the high praise it intially got from those who understood it's intention. Well The Darkness are sadly no more as of now. Sure, there have been critics all along the way criticizing them for being Spinal Tap rip offs to just being stupid in general. And how the band disintegrated only served to prove those people right as they saw it. . . nothing could be further from the case. To those of us that "got it" we see through those half-knowledgable attempts to criticize something these people don't really understand. Let me make a few things clear.

First off I LOVE the movie This Is Spinal Tap, it's easily in my top 3 movies of all time. As a film it was revolutionary and influential so much so that more than 25 years later the cutting edge of comedy is still directly related to this movie. One of the reasons why the movie is hilarious is that as musicians, at least in the context of heavy metal, Spinal Tap are passable at best. Their riffs are simplistic and repetitive. Their playing is very sloppy and lacks any subtlety whatsoever. If you are a musician, these things are blatantly obvious. It doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the movie in fact it adds to it. Because the characters take themselves so serously throwing names like Mozart and Bach around as it applies to their music when it's obvious that none of their music will ever be confused with such names. The only time their music approaches ever climbing out of the murky depths of idiocy is the little piano tune entitled "Lick My Love Pump"(Nigel's musical 'trilogy' in D minor, the saddest of all keys) and maybe "America" otherwise, "Big Bottom", "Sex Farm", "Rock n' Roll Creation" etc. are painfully retarded lyrically AND musically. And I love the movie for it among other things.

The Darkness on the other hand are/were expert musicians. This isn't music that was haphazardly put together. It is finely crafted. The lyrics fall more in line with "Big Bottom" etc. in the sense that they are comical, but whereas Spinal Tap solely used their lyrics to objectify women. Justin doesn't really do that. When singing sexual lyrics he makes himself the butt of the joke. And sometimes he finds a way to even make it endearing/sweet as in Friday Night with the line "The way she moves, moves me/To write bad poetry/Dancin' on a Friday night. "

To those of us who came of age when hair metal was popular, The Darkness' message and intent is crystal clear. Which as I see it was: Yes, most of those 80's hair bands had ridiculous mindsets and attitudes, but the music was envigorating, and life-affirming. And furthermore, there is nothing wrong with celebrating and living life with gusto and passion. Now, I will admit as time has passed I find myself closely identifing with music like Radiohead but also Ben Folds(who himself did a cover of "Get Your Hands Off Of My Woman"). But the point of this music is to crank it up and have fun with it, not to morosely and clinically analyize it. It is not serious-minded music, but just because something isn't meant to be profound or deep doesn't mean it doesn't have great value. This is/was the realm The Darkness existed in, and I for one am glad the do/did.

As a side note in case you don't know there is a new band out there called Steel Panther. They are very much in line with The Darkness(kind of the American version if you will). They have an album called Feel The Steel coming out(Oct. 6 in America, it's already out elsewhere) with the great single Death To All But Metal"(or is it Butt Metal?). In fact, one of the tracks features none other than Justin Hawkins(The Darkness' frontman). Point is this stuff ain't going away. From what I've heard Steel Panther seem to be less subtle than The Darkness(which some of you probably think is impossible) but that same spirit is there. It's likely that the same that didn't get The Darkness won't get Steel Panther. That's too bad for them because it's good stuff just like this album is.

Permission denied
(Heck, it even makes Michael Bolton's musical output sound listenable. This album fuels the argument that Amazon should allow negative star ratings, accomplishing what hitherto had been regarded as impossible - it makes the 1980s hair metal that it parodies sound listenable. ) The Darkness always maintained that they did not take themselves seriously, but Spinal Tap they clearly were not. The hackneyed riffs and incongruous, ubiquitous falsetto would have been tolerable if the lyrical content had been remotely humorous (or if the band had a comical routine). The music on this album is power pop that sounded dated 20 years before it was released.

There is nothing wrong with the revival scene per se, but the music in question needs to be worthy of revival, and the revivalists need to be capable of enhancing the original product. Circa 1990, the metal scene that had ruled much of the 1980s had been rightfully consigned to the septic tank, with all potential openings sealed firmly shut. The Darkness were a one-trick pony whose skill was an ability to make the 1980s metal scene that they revived appear credible.

Thankfully The Darkness are no more, and this piffle will not gain the band induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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A great rock-n-roll band that sadly ended much too soon.
Here was a band that could bring back real rock-n-roll! This Cd is PURE FUN. When this band first burst on the music scene with this CD, I was so excited. Loud guitars, pounding drums, great vocals and lyrics. If you've never heard The Darkness before, look them up on youtube. This band--and this CD--is just good time rock-n-roll.

Sadly, the band fell apart before they really hit their stride here in the U. S. .

Best classic rock band ever!
The Darkness = best classic rock band ever!. The Darkness are the saviors of rock n roll! They're better than overplayed, old druggie hippie crap like Queen, Led Zepplin, Van Halen, The Beatles, The Who, etc.

Another Great "Rock" Debut...
After Rock Bands Such As: Van Halen, The Cars, Velvet Revolver, Guns N' Roses and Many More Debuted with all star debut albums. . this is another must own debut that is outstanding.

PROS:
The Album Has A Strong First 5 Tracks, and overall is a well balanced album with strong songs that reference us back to the era where Rock n' Roll ruled America.

The Band Sounds Tight and Professional. Makes Rock N' Roll Sound Fun Again.

CONS:
Although The Album Is Nearly Perfect. It's Misses With Only a couple of fillers that ruin this to be a perfect release. songs like "Stuck In A Rut" "Givin Up" and "Holding On My Own" Pretty Much Could've Been Changed Up With A Couple Of More Hard Hitting Songs.

Overall, This Is A Great Debut From a Once Great Rock Band That Should Return.

You can see a complete list of all The Darkness discography, or go back to the The Darkness tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.