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The Darkness - Permission To Land |
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06 August 2005 |
The Darkness Permission To Land - (Atlantic) The first time I popped this into my CD player, I didn't even get through the first track before taking it off and putting in Chuck Prophet's The Hurting Business . I tried again and got to the third track, but then opted to take it off and pop in that last BRMC CD. A third try saw me replacing it with Meat Puppets II . Tried a fourth time, starting from somewhere halfway through, but decided instead that I had to take it off and "rinse" with The Kinks' Sleepwalker after only two songs. Fifth attempt - stopped and decided to go out and buy some motor oil because I bought 10W30 instead of 5W30 by mistake. The point being that pretty much anything and everything is more worthwhile than listening to this. Sure, I get jokes and The Darkness' brand of throwback spandex hair-metal is supposed to be a great big one - at least I hope so. Even thinking about paying tribute to the likes of Poison and Def Leppard should inspire giggles, but The Darkness does seem to take the task seriously at times (now THAT'S funny!). From the shakiest metal-o falsetto I've heard in years (it reminds me of the falsetto my friends and I put on to make fun of this kind of stuff over a decade ago) to arrangements that seem almost random, The Darkness' brand of uninspired lunacy is made all the more maddening when you consider that someone decided that this was worth recording and, according to the likes of the NME and pitchforkmedia.com, worth buying. That is, you willfully pull this off of the CD rack, walk to a cash register, and hand money over to the salesperson in exchange for this. A song-by-song dissection of this just isn't worth it - it's all ridiculous (but not "Spinal Tap" fun-ridiculous). As a serious work, it fails miserably. As a joke, it flops even worse. Contrary to what some may think is being accomplished here, this is "anti-rock and roll". I know I'm starting to sound offended, but I assure you that I consider this slab of junk harmless in the grand scheme of things. What The Darkness have accomplished here is somehow making this music seem relevant and even important, and much of the blame lies within the hype surrounding this band. As a result, they've become a symbol of how low "taste-making" can sink. |
