Permission to Land

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.

Very very popular on release and I for one purchased the CD (look it up kids). Looking back now, it feels kinda silly, like they were trying TOO hard to puncture the earnestness of The Strokes / White Stripes etc. Justin Hawkins could easily be a total helmet, but appears to be a genuinely lovely guy and it was certainly a refreshing homage to the sheer BALLS OUT fun of hair metal.

Solid album. I only knew "I'll Believe In A Thing Called Love" before this, and that track rules. I'm not the biggest hair metal guy, so I'm not really the target audience, but have to say, was fairly enjoyable.

"Growing On Me" and "Friday Night" were other standout tracks.

THIS was critically acclaimed in 2003? I would hardly believe 1983... but 2003? Seriously? Is that a grand joke?

If you’ve heard their version of “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, I think you can probably skip the rest of this album. It’s a fun romp, through the days of arena-era hair metal, but that’s all I can really say. Musically, it doesn’t feel like they’re doing anything extremely different than Buckcherry or a few other party rock bands at the time. It missed the hair metal era by a few decades, glam rock by at least one more, and it didn’t kickstart a new era of either. So, it’s just… a tribute act? It’s a good time, but not list-worthy.

Honestly this is a pretty fun listen, but not really something that will ever enter my regular rotation.

It's a fun album, and I think it had probably the biggest hit of that new-wave of hair-metal rock music. I Believe in a Thing Called Love, absolute banger. The rest of the album is fine, but certainly not hits.

Great album. Extremely underrated (if published in the 70s, this would be a classic). I saw them live once and it was great fun. Nothing disruptive, but really good guitar-based hard rock. I think all songs are good...and some are great. A few favourites: "Black Shuck" (perfect energetic starter), "Growing on me" (perfect pre-Chorus), "I Believe in a thing called love" (so you wanted to have some guitars?), "Love is only a feeling" (such a well produced song...perfect outro), "Friday night" (a great power-pop song; simply irresistible, with a The Cure influence), "Love on the Rocks with No Ice" (classic sound and progressions,...). Well, I guess we have at least a 4-star album here (if not 5 stars). Feeling sorry for those who can't enjoy this album.

The first three songs are as ridicule as the cover art. Why would you do something like that in 2003 ? It's probably a kind of parody or something but it lands flat from my pov.

Will it get on my nerves and get a 1 or will it blend in the background and be 2? Time will tell.

You know, I appreciate how earnest this album is for what essentially is throwback 80's cock rock (I think it has a lot to do with the singers voice). In comparison to bands like Motley Crue, it doesn't sound like this band exudes STDs and heroin (despite Hawkins' drug use).

But yeah, it's a fairly fun album with the crowd pleaser in I Believe in a Thing Called Love.

My only real complaint is that this album in no way belongs on a list of 1001 Albums You Must Listen To. Hell, there aren't many glam/hair metal or rock albums from their heyday that belong within a country mile of this list, let alone one from 2003.

No, no, no. I don't like this at all. Puke emoji.

What a throwback! I'd never actually listened to whole album but I knew I was in for a good one!

Justin has one hell of a voice, incredibly talented. Really good songs too and a massive part of my childhood

5 ⭐️

this was fine.

Favorite track(s): just the part where he said "Latino lover mode"

The worst album so far in this list's continued obsession with the death rattles of rock. How great that I'm as far away from the release of this album as this band is from the death of the glam metal they tried to replicate to astoundingly bad results.

Everything you expect it to be. Extremely over the top, but just top class songs.
I think I would've ended the album with Holding My Own and just discarded the last song.

Not a perfect 5, but a big 4!

that album was fun. haven't had listened to any track before except of I believe in a thing called love

This album would’ve killed at my junior prom. Unfortunately, it came out 15 years after that glorious evening. We had to settle for Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”. They say better late than never but that is certainly not the case with this shitbiscuit. The Darkness made me wish for The Deafness.

This album is as terrible as Glam Rock gets. Why in the hell is this on the list? They allegedly had one big hit in Britain, but I hope that is not all that is needed for inclusion. Otherwise, I’ll warm up my reviews for Chumbawumba, Double and The Bravery. The instrumentals are fine but the off-key falsetto and the performative vocals are paralyzingly bad.

It’s a 10.

I mean, they just fucking killed it, what more do you want me to say? I thought glam rock like this passed away in the ‘90s, and was long dead by 2003 with the garage rock revival, but this is PURE glam rock, done as close to perfectly as you can do it, updating the ‘80s sound with a little bit less drum machine & a lot more fucking punch behind it. Their guitar solos sound like the synth solo on “Jump” half the time, they’re as juvenile as Aerosmith or Bon Jovi, they’ve got the energy of AC/DC or Motorhead, & they’ve got the falsetto of a Freddie Mercury undergoing puberty. Combine all of that with a technical proficiency reminiscent of Van Halen or even some prog rock bands like Genesis, Yes, or Rush, & somehow, someway, the cavalcade of influences & styles that are cherrypicked from history to create this album paint one of the most cohesively entertaining debut albums in the genre I’ve ever heard.

That’s about it, really – I can’t write paragraphs about this because it’s an album where you just have to fucking feel it, and when you feel it, you’ll know exactly how goddamn good it is. I got as in sync with these guys as I’ve gotten with any of the other high-intensity glam rock/grunge/metal bands we’ve gotten, so I loved everything about it, including a very welcome rediscovery of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” for myself. I’ve been looking for THAT track for years & years, and I could never find it because I always thought it was an ‘80s song. It’s gonna feel great to finally throw that into my playlists, goodness. It’s a super, super easy 10, and I’m very glad it’s on the list.

Sometimes on vet shows they have to castrate farm animals by putting an extremely tight band around their testicles. The lead singer of the Darkness sings like he has one of those bands on him

Plenty of falsetto over very pedestrian late 70s style hair metal music. The instrumental side is unoriginal, the lyrics are weak, but it’s the vocals that really drag it down. It ALMOST sounds like a parody band from a movie, like Spinal Tap, but from what I read they were actually serious when they put this out. 1.5 stars