The older I get, the more I realize that there is no accounting
\nfor some people’s taste. How else can we explain the popularity of
\nBritney Spears? Watermelon-flavored vodka? Hitting yourself in the
\nballs repeatedly with a hammer and calling it music?<\/p>\n
In the last case, this seems to be the modus operandi for Justin
\nHawkins and The Darkness, whose debut album
\nPermission To Land<\/i> has been growing in popularity over the
\nlast few months. I honestly can’t understand why. With sophomoric
\nsongs featuring more recycled Queen riffs than a used record store,
\nand Hawkins’s vocals which are so high-pitched your dog will yelp
\nin pain, this British quartet dares to be living proof that if you
\nhave the right image, any schmuck can land a record contract.<\/p>\n
Unless you have the lyrics right in front of you, it’s damn near
\nimpossible to understand what Justin Hawkins is screeching about.
\nPossibly the music — provided by guitarist Daniel Hawkins, bassist
\nFrankie Poullain and drummer Eddie Graham — would be a passable
\ntribute to ’70s hard rock, but the overreliance on falsetto vocals
\nends up hurting the cause. Makes me think that King Diamond should
\ncome down, kick Justin Hawkins’s ass, and show him the right way to
\nuse the falsetto.<\/p>\n
As it stands, though,
\nPermission To Land<\/i> is a difficult album to get through once,
\nand is not one you’ll want to listen to again after the initial
\nspin. Tracks like “Black Shuck,” “Love On The Rocks With No Ice”
\nand “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” all sound too campy to be taken
\nseriously, and come off more annoying than entertaining. This, I
\ndon’t think, was the band’s intention.<\/p>\n
Note that I’ve said nothing about the appearance of the band,
\nincluding Justin Hawkins’s obvious obsession with Robert Plant. I’m
\nno idiot; I know that image is a lot in the music business these
\ndays. Too bad, ’cause without their goofy on-stage looks, their
\nmusic ain’t worth shit. Dress these guys up in blue jeans and
\nflannel shirts (and shave that Village People-like moustache off of
\nPoullain) and you’ve got a band who’ll get booed off the stage at
\nyour local watering hole.<\/p>\n
I know, I’m paid to write about the music, not the image. If
\nonly there was more to say about
\nPermission To Land<\/i> than it should be intercepted mid-air and
\nshot down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6996],"rating":[5620],"class_list":["post-37904","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-darkness","rating-rating-f"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37904"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}