The first time I heard The Darkness was in the early fall of 2003. I happened to catch their video for "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" on MTV one afternoon. I saw long-haired dudes in leather pants, long after hair metal had died. The bass player recalled Freddie Mercury's gay biker-look days. The singer had this ridiculous falsetto and the video showed him blasting lasers out of his guitar at some sort of giant space alien. It was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. I just kept thinking, "What the hell is this?"A few weeks after that introduction, I happened to read a quote from my hero Jack Black saying that The Darkness' debut album "Permission to Land" was the greatest rock record he'd heard in a long time. Then a student with a proven taste in good music ( he was the kid who loaned me "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" ) asked me if I'd heard them. I kind of turned my nose up, but these two comments and some other press I'd seen about The Darkness made me think that maybe I'd dismissed them too quickly. I gave them another chance and ended up becoming a fan.
Here's the thing about The Darkness' first album: it IS bad. It's campy. It's ridiculously over the top. They've got lyrics like "Get your hands off my woman, motherfucker" and a song called "Growing On Me" about... venereal warts!?! The closer on the album is called "Holding My Own." Giving their other lyrical content, I can only imagine what the tongue-in-cheek title is a reference to. They're a whole lotta Queen, a little bit of AC/DC, and took just about every rock cliche they could, gave it a Mardi Gras meets ABBA make-over, and turned it all into a pretty entertaining debut. And part of why it ultimately works is because I don't think The Darkness took themselves very seriously. I think they know this is pretty corny, but they have a lot of fun with it. It's kind of like the first Charlie's Angels movie. It was ridiculously stupid, but to me it was obvious that Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu knew that. They sure looked like they had a good time doing it though, with all of their crazy outfits, outrageous stunts, and bad jokes. Laughing at yourself can be incredibly successful.
"Giving Up" is a song about a heroin habit. It's got some pretty graphic lyrics about the perils of addiction. At one point, singer Justin Hawkins yelps "I'd inject into my eyes if there was nowhere else to stick my skag." Later he says "I've finally ruined all of my veins sticking that f*cking shit into my arms." The thing is, I don't think the song is about giving up heroin. When the chorus says "Giving up giving a f*ck," I think it's just explaining why a person gets INTO the brown junk. But you know what? Why am I analyzing the lyrics of The Darkness? These guys are goofballs.
Oh... but one last thing. Seriously, guitarist Dan Hawkins is a real treat to listen to. His riffs are catchy... heavy and rockin' but great to jam to. His solos are fantastic. He really got the Brian May harmonizing guitar sound going in a lot of the songs. Despite all the silliness of The Darkness, Dan Hawkins is a legit talent.
"Givin' Up" is from the album "Permission to Land." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.
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