To say it sold fairly well would be pretty accurate: it appeared on quite a few album charts in several countries (specifically, it appeared on the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and The US...and, in some places, on more than one chart!) and got positive reviews.
But is this the album we deserved to get, knowing all that we do now involving Stone Gods and Hot Leg? Well...I don't think so, to be honest. But does that mean it's a bad album? Well, let's see.
First of all, let's take a look at the album cover. Erm...I'll admit, the women covered in what I'm assuming is intended to be some kind of syrup seems a tiny bit much, but it fits what the band are going for with the idea behind the cover art. In and of itself, it's maybe a bit much, but I can see what the band were going for, so I can't complain too much. Plus, considering the style of music the band play, it's actually not too far out of place for them. Ignoring that...I'd say it could have done with a better colour contrast, as there's a bit too much yellow and brown on the cover art.
The band's sound on this album seems to be in the vein of Permission To Land, although a few flashes of One Way Ticket do crop up. On paper, that should be a good thing: they've accepted that they overdid the Queen influence on One Way Ticket and gone back to what they did best when they first came around. However, I'd argue that this is actually a bit of a bad thing, as it shows a deliberate regression of the band's sound, which means we're basically back to the AC/DC as covered by Queen sound on that album on more than a bit of this album (see "Every Inch Of You").
HOWEVER, I will say that Dan Hawkins' time in Stone Gods has given him more confidence when song writing, as the band manage to nicely up the complexity with the songwriting while still keeping within the framework of their sound (a fine example of this is "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", although "She's Just A Girl, Eddie" could probably fit under this category as well). Although some of the lyrics are still rather poor, the lyrics seem to have generally taken a bit of a step up in quality on this album compared to The Darkness' first time around, which I'm personally going to attribute to Dan Hawkins due to better lyrics being a thing for Stone Gods and not for Hot Leg. Unfortunately, Dan Hawkins' extra confidence with songwriting has resulted in the band's songwriting taking a slight step down in terms of quality at the same time: there are a few songs that lack the hooks that you can find on Red Light Fever and occasionally has you getting faintly reminded of what happened on Silver Spoons & Broken Bones (only without the plagiarism and pointless sections that really dragged that album down for me). That said, it's not really enough a huge issue overall, since the really strong songs are going to be in your head all day anyway and the weaker songs don't really do anything really wrong per se. Also, the fact that some of the songs on the album are apparently old songs might mean this is me complaining about songs that weren't actually written for this album, so the more typical material might actually be some of the songs that the band didn't release for their debut album. I can't confirm which songs are the old ones, however, so I can't confirm how accurate this statement is.
The album's production is actually pretty fine. The bass is again still on the quiet side, but the mastering is fairly reasonable (although I do think it could have done with a tiny bit of turning down overall). Dan and Justin were co-producers on this album (they also produced it alongside Nick Brine, who co-produced Silver Spoons & Broken Bones alongside Dan), which is probably why this sounds like a combination of Silver Spoons & Broken Bones and Red Light Fever on a production level.
I know I'm skimming this review a bit compared to the other ones, but, really, most of what I've said can probably be seen in the last reviews I've done by The Darkness, Stone Gods and Hot Leg. You've got Justin Hawkins' high voice being its usual self (although he does sound a bit strained on this album at points...hopefully, this isn't a sign that his voice is going to give out in the next couple of years!), some solid bass playing by Frankie Poullain, you've got solid (if not especially complex) drumming from Ed Graham and Justin and Dan are a very good guitar duo together. The music's not especially complicated, but it's well performed. Really, there's not a lot left to say at this point.
So, final thoughts? It's a solid album that suffers from a few unmemorable songs and the regression of the band's sound doesn't exactly do them any favours, but everything else seems to have stepped up from One Way Ticket. Really, you probably know if you'll want to check this out or not just from what I've said about this album, especially if you have any familiarity with The Darkness at this point. I'd like to see the band be a bit more adventurous on their fourth album, but they've done a good enough job that I'm probably nitpicking at the end of the day.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
While it suffers from having a few weak songs and the band's dedication to following their old sound does mean you can't help being a bit frustrated by the fact that the band don't seem to have progressed much musically, it's still a fairly solid album that's worth picking up if you've heard The Darkness' music before now and liked it. If you haven't and like the sound of it, you should give this a go. If you never liked The Darkness before now, don't bother with this, as you're not going to get anything to make you change your mind.
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us", "She's Just A Girl, Eddie", "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
No comments:
Post a Comment