| Product Summary | | Label: Atlantic/q Records | | UPC: 00825646081721 | | Release Date: 9/16/2003 | | Buy.com Sku: 60613199 | | Item#: MUSCYG | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Black Shuck ~ The Darkness |  | | 2. Get Your Hands Off My Woman ~ The Darkness | | | 3. Growing On Me ~ The Darkness | | | 4. I Believe In A Thing Called Love ~ The Darkness | | | 5. Love Is Only A Feeling ~ The Darkness | | | 6. Givin' Up ~ The Darkness | | | 7. Stuck In A Rut ~ The Darkness | | | 8. Friday Night ~ The Darkness | | | 9. Love On The Rocks With No Ice ~ The Darkness | | | 10. Holding My Own ~ The Darkness | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | The Darkness: Justin Hawkins (vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizer); | | Dan Hawkins (guitar); Frankie Poullain (bass); Ed Graham (drums). | | Recorded at Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire, England and Paul Smith Music Studios, London, England. | | Personnel: Justin Hawkins (vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizer); Dan Hawkins (guitar); Ed Graham (drums). | | Audio Mixer: Pedro Ferreira. | | Recording information: Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire, England; Paul Smith Music Studios, London, England. | | Photographer: Daniel "Bud" Ford. | | 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 Beyonc?'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 | | Pouncing onto the British music scene like the hyperactive spawn of the late-1970s hard-rock scene, the Darkness unveiled their 2003 debut, PERMISSION TO LAND, to great success in the UK. Led by unitard-wearing, falsetto-brandishing vocalist/guitarist Justin Hawkins, the group revels in the kind of pop metal once made famous by Def Leppard and Whitesnake, boasting big guitar riffs and driving rock rhythms. The band's not-so-secret weapon is Hawkins himself--an irrepressible, high-kicking frontman who gleefully unleashes lyrics such as "a nimbus of blue light surrounds a crimson paw" in a voice that ranges from a growl to a wail rivaling Queen's Freddie Mercury or Judas Priest's Rob Halford. | | Although the Darkness may come across as tongue-in-cheek metal revivalists, they're entirely sincere on soaring power ballads such as "Love Is Only a Feeling" and "Holding My Own." And when Hawkins screams out "guitar!" before the guitar solo in "I Believe in a Thing Called Love," there's no mistaking the intention of these energetic British lads--they've come to rock. |
Producer: Pedro Ferreira |
Engineer: Pedro Ferreira |
| | Artist Overview | | In 2003, when droves of new bands were stripping down their sound as part of the widespread garage-rock revival, idiosyncratic British band the Darkness headed in the opposite direction. Their campy, larger-than-life approach was deeply indebted to '70s glam and arena rock, full of wailing guitar solos, helium vocals, and generous doses of swagger, bombast, and revealing tights. Their debut album, PERMISSION TO LAND, was a monstrous hit in their native country, and shortly thereafter became popular in the US as well. |
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| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 09/16/2003 | | Original Release Date : 2003 | | Catalog ID : 60817 | | Label : Atlantic (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00825646081721 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.105)
- Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003"Rolling Stone (10/2/03, p.118)
- 3 stars out of 5 - "...PERMISSION TO LAND is the first retro-metal album that's worth more than a momentary chuckle. Eighties hard rock is alive and well in the hands of the Darkness." Q (01/01/04, p.82)
- Ranked #9 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums of 2003" - "PERMISSION TO LAND is a great rock album." Uncut (9/03, p.97)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "...Staggeringly skillful, and a strangely touching expression of unbridled joy..." CMJ (9/29/03, p.5)
- "...[The Darkness] is here to remind everyone that rock music doesn't need to be so [damn] serious..." Mojo (Publisher)
(8/03, p.98)
- 4 out of 5 stars - "...To execute a rock 'n' roll this audaciously camp and ludicrously overblown take balls of exactly the dimensions they boast about in interviews..." |
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