Permission to Land

Justin Hawkins giveth and Justin Hawkins taketh away.

This is an album full of great songs and good musicianship which, in all likelihood, would have gone largely unnoticed without Hawkins’ unusual, almost comic falsetto. And yet it was that same falsetto that made people assume The Darkness were a bit of a piss-take and *Permission to Land* wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.

But at the end of the day, this IS an album full of great songs.

Bit of a rollercoaster with this one. Saw I got it and was like "oh it's a jokey one a bit like the Monkees yaknow". Then I didn't like the first one, but warmed and warmed to it until it peaked at Love is Only a Feeling. Earnest! Maybe, not sure. But I did like it. However, then I felt it slip back into juvenile again, like they could produce better music than they are currently doing. So it lands at a 3, but it was briefly a 4.

Permission granted 🫡

'Get your hands off of my woman, motherfucker / Get your hands off of my woman, motherfucker.' Glam rock that's as weird as anything you'd hear in a long time while also being no different from so much other rock music of the early 20-aughts including lame bands like The Killers & underrated acts like The Libertines, The Darkness are a fun, delightful group that grow on you b/c, deep down, their pop sensibility is all that really matters. This is to say that melodies reign supreme: 'Love Is Only a Feeling,' 'Givin' Up,' & 'Friday Night' are classics of dispensable triviality & deep joviality. The Darkness are at times too close to 70s radio rock for me to tune in ravishingly - I'm thinking of Boston, Journey, etc. - but I guess that's also a part of the play.

2.8

sounds like Mickey mouse singing

Genuinely shocked at how much I loved this camp, ridiculous hair metal gem

Every time I hear "i believe in a thing called love" I'm like, whatever happened to this band? Their sounds is very early 2000s.
First time hearing the whole album, and their sound is very reminiscent of 70s big hair rock. I didn't discover new songs I like, but not a bad album. 4*

Music was great. The singers voice triggered my misophonia. Couldn't take it.

I will not include the bonus track "Makin' Out" in this review.

I will admit that I have probably listened to more of The Darkness than the average person would. I remember first hearing their big hit "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" on the soundtrack for Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. Since then, I have heard the first half of this debut album, Permission to Land, alongside other select songs and albums from later in their career. It's not surprising why I keep coming back to them - a band deliberately harkening back to the glam rock of the 1970s, particularly Slade and Queen, with a touch of AC/DC-esque hard rock and Justin Hawkins's over-the-top falsetto delivery.

But there are two key reasons why I keep coming back to The Darkness over other bands borrowing from glam rock and hard rock at the time. First, they actually wrote and composed kick-ass music with actual muscle to it, especially with Dan Hawkins' electrifying guitar work. Second, they come off as genuinely earnest in throwing back to these earlier styles. Sure, the music can be cheesy, especially when they do their own power ballads in "Love is Only a Feeling" and "Holding My Own". But the musicianship more often than not outshines any perceived cheesiness. Hell, I can get away with saying that "Friday Night" is the cock rock equivalent of The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love" that I never knew I needed, because the songwriting is that fun and well-constructed. I'll gladly take this over the likes of Jet, Hinder, or Buckcherry any day.

So yeah, I did enjoy listening to Permission to Land. I'm glad The Darkness are still going out there, making consistently good music. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

I think the Darkness got tarred with the novelty band brush (the outfits, the album cover and releasing a Christmas song with a pun on 'bell end' in the title probably didn't help), which might be why no one really bought the follow up. However, I also think they just genuinely loved hair metal at a time when it was deeply unfashionable. Permission to Land is campy (and patchy), but there are also some great tunes.

The Good: We’re allowed to land!
The Bad: We don’t know where we’re landing…
The Ugly: Our usher did not look like the damsel on the album cover…

This could very well be one of the last albums that I recall buying.
After all, Pirate Bay was still out there…

Don’t recall how many times I’ve listened to the album, plenty of times as it was in the cd-stack in my car… remember those, kids?

It was a joy listening to it today, and I know that I will listen to it again tomorrow… it is a pick-me-uper for sure.
Also, for those of you who like listening to music reviews, justinhawkinsridesagain.com…

To all you hater… I believe in a thing called love, so I won’t hold your bad taste against you…

5*

I expected this to be a little punkier (but I may have been thinking of The Damned), but I still enjoyed this quite a bit. It's largely glam inflected hard rock with some really catchy songwriting and, perhaps most importantly, *very* distinct vocals. I actually really like Justin Hawkins' vocals and think that he's one of the biggest factors here that makes this album really stand out to me. He has such a powerful falsetto that I could even see how it could be a turn off for some people. He takes songs like Black Shuck, I Believe In A Thing Called Love, and Love On The Rocks With No Ice from solid hard rock to *really* good songs. This isn't perfect or anything, and it's not always my thing, but Permission to Land is at least consistently enjoyable.

Imagine a cover band that loves playing covers of Queen, T. Rex and AC/DC, hires a boy soprano, and starts composing tracks that sound suspiciously similar to the bands they’ve been covering with such ease for years. Voilà – you’re listening to the debut album "Permission to Land" by The Darkness. When it was released in the early 2000s, it was a huge hit with younger music fans, who thought it was the most brilliant idea since sliced bread. However, if you know anything about music history, the references to mainstream rock in the 1970s are so obvious that they're almost cringe-worthy. It's all very well done and catchy, and Justin Hawkins’ yodelling – sorry, singing – is impressive, but to me it's just old hat. And over the course of a whole album, it's rather tiring and annoying. When I do want to listen to music like this, I prefer the originals.

Fuck the hell yeah, I LOVE this album. Have done since the day it was released. I went to see them perform it in full for its 10th anniversary and that still ranks as one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.

Obviously I Believe In A Thing Called Love is the mega hit from this, and I do like it, but I would rank at least 5 songs ahead of it. Growing On Me for example was a far stronger single to come from the album while Friday Night has the same silliness as IBIATCL but I’ve always preferred it out of the two.

Love Is Only A Feeling is the standout track for me though. A genuinely great power ballad without the same level of goofiness the rest of the album has.

A special mention for Holding My Own as well. Surprisingly brilliant to hear live but in my teenage innocence, it honestly took me years to work out what it was about 🤦‍♂️

Top Track - Love Is Only A Feeling

A covers band that thinks they're too good to cover the original tracks.

The Darkness are probably one of rock's biggest anachronisms. When other bands made back-to-basics garage rock and pretentious indie, they made unapologetically bombastic glam rock. And it is good when taken as unapologetically bombastic glam rock. It is incredibly ridiculous and over-the-top in many ways, not least the falsetto vocals. The lyrics are as ridiculous as you'd expect, laced with F-bombs for maximum impact on the listener(in a goofy, tongue-in-cheek way). This probably isn't essential listening, but at least it's entertaining in a way few 2003 albums were.

This album is ranked #8 of 14 albums for 2003. Other 2003 albums rated by me:
Elephant(1/14)-4
Frank(2/14)-4
Hail to the Thief(3/14)-3
So Much For the City(12/14)-2

A fun album, and a rather surprising hit for 2003. "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" is a great track, and Justin Hawkins is a compelling frontman, but I ultimately find this album a bit too backward-looking and maximalist for my taste.

Good times. I remember this very well from my student house. It's aged like a fine wine. I'm surprised how much I've enjoyed this today. Friday Night and Love on the Rocks With no Ice are both brilliant fun.

I like “I believe in a thing called love” for about a minute. Maybe two. This album dares to ask, what if that song were 42 minutes long? Sometimes the riffs hit right and sometimes the vibe/singing/sophomoric humor really didn’t.