Albums of the Decade: The Darkness – ‘Permission To Land’
A controversial choice from the band that owned the globe for 12 months. Check out our other Albums of the Decade!
For a period of about a year, one band owned the globe. At a time when Nu-Metal had just died out and metalcore was enjoying its initial boom, it seemed totally incongruous that a band who embraced the best elements of Queen, Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy and AC/DC could take over the world (especially when their frontman sang with a crazy falsetto vocal and wore skin-tight spandex catsuits) but that’s exactly what happened in the aftermath of The Darkness releasing ‘Permission To Land’.
The warning signs were already with us way before the album itself had dropped. They had already become the first unsigned band to sell out the Astoria and quite prophetically, the press had already fallen in love with frontman Justin Hawkins and his catsuit.
The biggest sign of things to come came in the shape of the ‘Growing On Me’ single. With an instantly recognisable intro, a chorus that was built for stadiums and a sublime final guitar solo, it was well received by mainstream fans, rock fans and both sets of critics. The expletive-ridden ‘Get Your Hands Off Of My Woman’ may have been the first single the band had released, but it was the hugely Queen-inspired ‘Growing On Me’ that truly made the first dent.
Then came single number 3 and all of the fanfare that comes with a single as instantly classic as ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’. We all know that Bon Jovi have written songs better than ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ (‘Born To Be My Baby’ scoops that honour for us) but that song is so undeniably classic, it was embraced by people who wouldn’t know a decent rock tune if it came up and spanked them between the eyes. Likewise, ‘Still Of The Night’ is better than ‘Here I Go Again’ but that mighty Coverdale chorus hook is so monumentally huge that it has to be bigger than Jesus. This is the kind of company that a song like ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ is in. It’s a ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, it’s a ‘Walk This Way’. It’s an out-and-out, stonewall classic of a tune and, while it always makes you want to gauge your eyes out when you watch the plonkers from Lloyds bars sing and dance along with it, it’s still a blinding tune.
Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that The Darkness were going to go on to own the globe but alas, it wasn’t to be. If The Darkness were hurt by anything, it wasn’t their lack of great tunes (even their over-looked second album had songs as massively catchy as ‘Is It Just Me?’ and ‘Knockers’). One of the band’s biggest problems was that they became detached from the rock audience that could have stuck with them.
Things spiralled out of control to the point where the band were being interviewed by Lorraine Kelly on GMTV and that Mr & Mrs Ford Mondeo thought that it was cool to like them made them an instant enemy with the rock fraternity. ‘Permission To Land’ sold an eye-watering 1.5 million copies in the UK alone and you literally could not turn your head without feeling their presence and as such, they became public enemy number 1. Even when they headlined the Reading/Leeds festivals in 2004, you could feel that the goodwill towards the band was running low.
It became very easy to dislike the band due to this over-saturation but the songs remain world-beating anthems of the greatest variety. Which ever way you splice it up, ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’ is a world-beating ballad, ‘Friday Night’ could have been a number one single should the band have chosen to release it and ‘Love On The Rocks’ has a riff that would have made Angus proud.
Our very own Dom Lawson summed it up best when he described as being ‘like a greatest hits album’. Was it all ironic piss-taking? Was it a joke? Who give a fuck. It remains to this day a world-class rock album that is loaded full of unbelievable tunes. If you got pissed off with them at the time, give ‘Permission To Land’ another spin and ask yourself, were they really worth despising as much as you felt at the time.
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Yep, agreed – controversial, but supported from this lil’ corner of the world. I’ve seen them a few times – in fact, I saw them live in Sydney before I heard the album, and they blew me away.
Big, fat rock’n'roll – with a healthy amount of grated cheese on top!
Steel Panther ain’t got nuthin’ on these guys (at the time)!
i dont like em at all and how they managed to sell that many albums in the uk alone is beyond me but fair play to em
defo gonna course some controversy on here tho i bet
You plum Bezer!
I’m surprised this hasn’t amassed more angry comments from ‘true/real’ metallers… yet (;<
I would call myself a true metaller but this was an amazing album.
Now wait for all the people to say it should be an album that wasnt that good by there favourite band.
Beez, you do realise Dom Lawson is going to shit in your mouth now?
Permission to say ” FUCK OFF “
this is a bag of shit
I would be lying if i say i didn’t like this when i was younger, after that it was a case of who the fuck cares.
Classic album from my high school days, defo an album of the decade for me. Shame this band couldnt make it stick tho.
Check out Stone Gods (Dan Hawkins current band) to see what The Darkness should have released as album no. 2
Spot on. Quality album with quality balls to the wall anthems, Love on the Rocks, Black Shuck and Stuck in a Rut still sound great and the slow ones have just the right level of cheese a great album from start to finish. Also one of the best live bands going when they played Reading with Linkin Park they were easily highlight of the weekend.
Are you people for real???????? Overblown bullshit with the worst vocals in music, never mind in rock! This has to be a joke!!! Steel Panther would eat this shit for breakfast! And yes, I know the Hawkins twat is on their album.
A great album that came around just at the right time. It was so refreshing to hear an album like this after the disaster that was Nu Metal!!
I must admit I thought that the second album was crap, but I was glad to see them live at the peak of their powers!!
I have to admit it was refreshing to hear the darkness around that time though I was only 14/15 mind when that came out I didn’t appreciate the album for what it was but looking back you could say we did need that album to help put British rock back on the map
I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE
This album is so bad it’s good! XD
Fair play, they know how to play, and how to put on a show. But i cannot stand them, at all.
LEAVE THE CATSUITS IN THE FUCKING 80′S.
They were painfully corporate, the fact that he started off doing advert jingles, then was treated like flavour of the week throughout their whole career….
whatever….you guys sure do know what your talking about…
THE DARKNESS !!!!! Album of what fucking decade ??? Fuck off and die you fucking fuck. I never bought into that poor excusefor a band from the moment i first saw them. Absolute joke. Now go away and don’t come back until you’ve thought of a better album, which shouldn’t be very hard at all !!!
FUCK RIGHT OFF – WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS!!!
Since you guys started this little feature, you have mentioned, “Slipknot Vol 3″, “Ascendancy” and the best of all “The Blackening”
How the fuck you can lump this tripe in with that lot is beyond me – I appreciate your attempt at being a little diverse but fuck me.
As mentioned above, Steel Panther would wank all over this garbage
its funny about how every one loves slayer but there probly isnt an album that you could say is an album of the decade. showws the amazing impact that the albms of the 80’s had.
i was hoping you wouldn’t forget this one
the rubbish these site-goers are spouting is really quite astounding. rightfully chosen, an absolutley amazing album. it just sounds like a classic, it’s just such a shame they ran out of steam afterwords.
the darkness – reuinite for download 2010 please
!
I thought they sucked yeah, but overall for the time they weren’t bad =/
I hold my opinion but i mean ffs, Steel Panther are so much worse!!
being serious though, you can’t hear the chorus kick in in ‘growing on me’ and not think ‘this is fucking awesome’.
Spot on! A great album!
I think the steel panther joke is wearing a bit thin too.
Hahaha, could never agree this was an album of the decade…but it was a lot of fun at the time (and still has its moments).
“get your hands offa ma wooooooman muthafuuuuuuckaaaaa”
Not quite ‘Emperor’ but still…
Yes, people liked it, but people liked Ford Escorts and they’re still shit. Bad solos, bad vocals and the Radio One Jo Whiley/Chris Moyles Bandwagon Jumping Club (TM) loved them, because they thought it gave them some ‘rock credibility’. Not for me, thank you. Can we have Anthrax’s ‘We’ve Come For You All’ next week, please?
FUCKING SICK BAND
FUCKING SICK ALBUM
SINGERS A CUNT
IT’S LIKE GUNS & ROSSES BUT THE MUSIC IS ACTUALLY GOOD!
BUT YEAH NOT THE BEST OF THE DECADE!
It made my guts churn back then and that still hasn’t changed. Horrible bunch of cunts.
chris ward – most people who like rock or metal don’t give a toss what people (especially from radio 1) think of it. it’s sad that your opinion has been changed by that.
Come on people- everyone likes a bit of fun. I like Emperor/Tool/Dream Theater etc. as much as the next ‘real’ metal fan, but what’s wrong with a bit of brainless fun occasionally? This sits happily in my collection alongside the aforementioned bands and I’m not ashamed of that at all.
A true guilty pleasure, along with I GET WET by ANDREW WK.
absoulute pile of crap, its just plane comedy rock, nothing to do with glam metal or heavy metal just a pile of S**T!
Agree with ChrisB on this.
Nothing wrong with a bit of silly fun like The Darkness really.
Besides, aren’t there supposed to be even worse bands than them?
Time you are wasting commenting on this band could be spent doing the same to a more deserving one!
Fred – my opinion hasn’t been changed by the Radio One crowd; I thought it was shit anyway. Having a bunch of trendy muppets trying to air guitar and make out they’ve always liked rock won’t affect me or my opinions. I highlighted the Radio One crowd because as soon as anything like The Darkness gets popular, they jump on the bandwagon, build them up as the best thing ever and then drop them and move on. To them it’s novelty factor. They wouldn’t listen to something like, for example, Saxon, who have big riffs, solos and sometimes squeely vocals.
Anyway, I thought it was shit then, and still do. And that’s my opinion. If you like it, fill your boots!
amen hammer