Darkness - Permission to Land

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Free Music Notes for Permission to Land

Free Music Review: One word: fun!
Hit: 5 Stars

The album takes 70s and 80s metal, rock'n'roll and glam rock, and time-shifts it successfully into the new millenium. Nostalgia? Yes. You'll find yourself 'hearing' lots of other bands from a generation ago, carefully pieced, sewn, and blended together. But that's not to say it's unoriginal. Don't be put off by the multitude of comparisons to Queen if you're not a big Queen fan (neither am I), because that's just one of the many influences and sounds: you'll find Queen, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Van Halen, Status Quo, Aerosmith and more, all mixed in with The Darkness's own original twist.

The songs are catchy. They are *all* catchy. They are generally short, punchy, and to-the-point. No self-indulgent, overly-artistic guitar solos, digital effects or fade-out/ins (which too many bands attempt but lack the talent or finesse to pull off). These songs are designed to be played live. They are crowd-pleasers, every single one. I guarantee there is not a single song on this album without a hook that will reverberate around your head all day until you can next listen to the CD!

A quick word of warning - prerequisites for owning and listening to this album: you *must* have a sense of humour, the ability to appreciate humour/irony/sarcasm, and you must be willing to have fun and enjoy yourself. You must *not* feel obliged to take yourself too seriously. It will not follow current fashion and it will not (necessarily) make you look cool in front of your goth/punk/emo/nu-metal friends, if you are in that age-range and environment. You will not be able to spend hours dissecting the musical and lyrical merit, or find the hidden emotion or meaning behind the songs, if that is what you look for in your music. This album is simply about having fun and having a sense of humour -- from the music, to the vocals you've heard all about, to the lyrics (from 'Friday Night', about fond memories of dance class after school with a special someone: "Cos the way she moves moves me to write bad poetry"...!) If you don't fulfil these prerequisites, we can probably expect to see you posting back here about how much you hated the album because it "wasn't cool" or was "silly" or "didn't rock".

Ohhh no, believe me: this album rocks. It is 100% pure, unadulterated, non-stop rock. As long as that is what you are here to find - and are ready to have fun in the process - you'll be happy. Very, very happy!

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Extended Review:
(for anyone with the stamina to read this far!)

About the catchiness of the songs... Put it this way: I saw them live before I heard the CD, and I recognised every single song from their live set when I heard it again on the CD... I could even sing along! (This is unheard of for me -- live sets from new bands tend to blur into a muddy mess in my mind barely seconds after the set is over). Which leads me to my next recommendation...

If you ever get the chance, see them live! Yes, I know, I know... you've seen hundreds of album/band reviews saying, "See this band live, they rock so much more than on CD, yadda yadda". And I, too, tend to regard those reviewers as being 'live music snobs'. But in this case I will make an exception and recommend The Darkness's live show. Because it is a *show*. They have the flares. They have the handlebar moustaches. They have the cut-out spandex jumpsuits. Above all they have energy and fun running through them, complete with Steven Tyler-esque star-jumps and assorted acrobatics. And they *will* get the crowd singing **every single one** of those high notes! (Believe me, it's hilarious seeing a bunch of tattoed, bearded, leather-clad, beer-swilling bikers singing "You're really growing on meeee-eeeeee-eeee" on a note that would make dogs cringe.) If for no other reason, go see them live just for this!! It's the absolute essence of what The Darkness are trying to bring back to modern music. For an added twist, look up and check out their website -- in particular, the music videos!

As an aside... I'm still chuckling at the people who reviewed this album and said that Justin Hawkins's vocals aren't good enough, and that the band should find another vocalist and move on. Granted, there have been other vocalists in rock history with more natural falsettos, but -- apart from the fact that his voice is still vastly better than that of most other rock vocalists you'll hear on the radio nowadays -- I think those reviewers are missing the whole point: The Darkness aren't all about finding the latest rock/metal niche to fill (a la Linkin Park, etc.) and then rearringing their lineup to put together the perfect band to make the perfect sound to fill that niche. The Darkness are who they are: a bunch of friends making the music *they* want to make, the way *they* want to make it, performed the way *they* want to perform it. If you happen to like it too, that's great! But if you don't like it, they're not about to change their music and their ways special for you or to fit the latest musical trend or fad. If they were all about making vast amounts of money and fitting the trends, they wouldn't have taken such a huge gamble in making the music they do!

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