The Darkness – One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back
(Atlantic/WEA)

There’s a lot of people who desperately want this album to fail. There’s the perception out there that the Darkness exist solely to poke fun at decades old rock and that they aren’t serious about their music. These same people don’t have the respect for them to even correctly identify exactly what era they’re supposedly mocking. The term ‘cock rock’ has been thrown around left and right, and while it may be true that the Darkness’ videos and live shows visually celebrate the excess of the 80s, musically they are clearly devoted to classic rock of the 70’s – Boston, Thin Lizzy, early AC/DC and especially Queen.

The devotion to Queen has been drastically upped with this sophomore disc, in the vast majority of cases for the better, but in a few moments not so much. On the positive side, the production by – you may not be surprised – Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker, has masterfully multitracked Justin Hawkins voice throughout this album to easily pull of the “Freddie Mercury effect”, making Hawkins appear to have much more control over his voice than he actually does. The rock riffs and solos continue to impress – if it were a decade earlier surely we’d be hearing Beavis and Butthead humph-ing along to them. The lyrics, while in some cases are ridiculous and in other cases overly simplistic love songs, also successfully celebrate that era of music. In 2005, having goofy lyrics is somehow considered mockery though… these people apparently forget “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “You Shook Me All Night Long”, and other songs of the era the Darkness worship.

“One Way Ticket” in many places truly captures the sexual ambiguity of classic rock, especially through the bombastic highlands inspired “Hazel Eyes”, the piano driven “English Country Garden”, a few ballads, and “Knockers”, which despite its title, sounds ‘gay’ enough to be a Scissor Sisters track. Whether it’s the pan flutes that open the record or the jingling bells in “Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time”, it disgusts me that anyone could think that the Darkness aren’t fully in control of what they’re doing – how anyone could question their care for their craft. There is a difference between ‘trying to be funny’ and ‘trying to have fun’, and the Darkness clearly fit in the latter category.

The title track, while a grower, was probably a bad choice for the first single. Even in the UK where the Darkness are already of Legend, it has not done as well as expected. Still, given the context of the album it’s appropriate. The songs are definitely catchy, but they are not nearly as ready for radio as “Permission to Land”. It didn’t take me any longer to really throw myself into “One Way Ticket” than it did for “Permission”, but I find this album’s Queen worship causes it to be hard to sing along to. Granted, their lyrics have never been the clearest, but they’re even more unintelligible now.

Despite giving this my highest rating, I’m not sure this tops “Permission to Land”. But one thing is for certain, this wins no matter how much certain (I’m talking to you Tim Perlich of NOW Magazine, you elitist douche) don’t get it want it to. The Darkness will certainly be kicking around for several albums more. – Goon

SCORE:

Recommended If You Like: Queen, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Boston, Guns N Roses, Sweet