So, err, The Darkness then....

Seems like the most talked about band in the UK has somehow avoided being talked about here, so lets have it then, what do people think of them?

It seems that out of nowhere they've blasted onto the scene, and managed to take over everything from the charts, to TV and every respected magazine in the country. They've really captured the public's imagination and filled a hole in people's music collections that they didn't even realise existed :slayer:

I have to admit to liking them a lot to be honest (in fact I'm going to see them at one of their sell out gigs in Manchester in December), the music has so many influences from bands I love it's crazy, the main influences I believe come from AC/DC and Def Leppard, even brining in a mandolin in one particular song!!

My concern is that they may burn out to soon, but then again that may be unfounded, just look at The Beatle....so what do you think of them, opinions welcome.

Cheers,
Rick

 

I thought I hated them! A few of my mates were into them and had said it was good for all the reasons you say (lack of cock rock bands ) etc....

No bad thing not having many of them around I thought

Then it's the argument that you have to like them as they're just so entertaining!

Erm... I can see what's meant to be amusing/entertaining. But just didn't do it for me.

However, after hearing the album a lot around peoples houses and such. And seeing air guitar and people doing high pitched harMOnies across large rooms.

I find that side of it entertaining.

I thought I hated them!

I can see what they're doing is quite clever. Are they a marketed plastic band who just because they're "rock" keep some credit and get away with it? Or are they genuinely into what they're doing and having a laugh?

Does it matter?

 

FAAAAAAAAAN-bloody tastic!!!! I too wandered why they'd not been mentioned, but thought I'd let someone else take this one up!

I didn't know anything about them when I went to Glasters, and that didn't change 'cos we overslept on the Friday... GUTTED!!!

I heard the album round a mate's a couple of weeks after and I LOVED it!!!! All the cheese influences from Queen via Cinderella to Kiss and yeah, the Def Leppard influences are certainly there!

The standouts have to be "Love on the rocks with no ice" and "Get your hands off of my woman motherf***er" - pure class!

Oh yeah - and that high harmonies across large rooms? Urm, I went for all the high bits on "I believe in a thing called love" last night down the pub - well, it'd be rude not to! GUITAR!!!!

 

I recall watching an interview with them during Glastonbury, where they came across as a bunch of idiot rock posers, so completely unaware of their own ridiculousness they made Spinal Tap look like Belle and Sebastian.

Then I saw them last week, on a rare foray to TOTP. They were fantastic. It was brilliant pop music, played with no little skill and a lot of honesty – a rare thing these days. There's almost something innocent about them, compared to the grating cynicism of the girl and boy bands, all that po-faced r'n'b, and the ranks of warbling cut-outs trying to emote their way through songs they don't remotely understand.

It seems the backstage antics at Glastonbury were no pose. The Darkness are just a bunch of goons having a good time with some catchy tunes.

I've been singing it all week. Touching you-oo-oooooooooo, touching me-ee-eeeeeeeeeee!

 

I think their music is shite - about the only redeeming feature they have is that they don't appear to take themselves very seriously and are just having a laugh whilst all the cash rolls in.

A bit like Sigue-Sigue Sputnik (the attitude, not the music), and only marginally more talented.

Michael.

 

i say take the elastic band off the poor guys genitals.. it's being cruel to dumb animals.
cheers

julian

 

A vote for here, face to the sky, guitar pointed upwards 70's knob rock at it's very finest. How can you grumble at a band that nicks from everything from Rainbow to Queen, you couldn't make that up could you

 

There are a few people at work who shared the initial hatred and cynicism of the band, but after a few plays of the album they are quickly coming round to seeing what they are about. That I think is what many have seen - just a band having fun, and bollocks to the consequences. Anyone who says "I can blow any guitarist in the country away" can only be taken lightly!!

I was just waiting for that word to be used....the word being "shite". Could you just clarify a few questions for me Michael, a) Have you listened to the album, if so how many times? b) What exactly your definition of "shite" is, and what it is that promotes the use of such a colourful descriptive word with respect to The Darkness. Just so we all know what your issues with them are.

Cheers,
Rick

 

I haven't heard the whole album but I've heard a few tracks on the radio (XFM in London) - enough to convince me not to buy the album.

How to define "shite"... I would say it's meaning is fairly broad, but in general when people use it to describe music it means they don't like it at all, which is the case with me

I think I made my issues with them clear in my first post on the thread.

Michael.

 

I think you have the same issues with The Darkness as I have with Björk and Norah Jones - I can't put my finger exactly on why they are "shite", they just are :clint:

If you feel that your issues with the band were expressed sufficiently in your first post, then that's good enough for me.

Cheers,
Rick

 

BOOO HOOO BOOO BLUB BLUB....

Stop rubbing it in about me missing them at Glastonbury!!! Well, if you didn't know, no worries, but you do now, so!!! Blub blub blub!!!!

Yep, there's a definite hole in the music industry that needs filling by more of these feel good none-too-serious bands - I guess Radiohead killed off that market when they released OK Computer though?

Could this be the birth of nu-Brit-rock (Britpop was too wussy really)?

OH - and while we're about it - Sigue Sigue Sputnik are fantastic - well, their Flant It album is anyway - I have it on vinyl and CD, and how can you miss with Love Missile F1-11, Atari Baby, and samples from an old L'Oreal Studioline TV ad? Exactly - you can't! Ha!

 

They're entertaining enough (I laughed out loud when I saw them on Jools Holland's Later) but everyone will have forgotten about them in a few months time and moved onto something else, I'm sure.

-- Ian

 

It was really, some great music, but if the most hardcore thing about it was that tool Gallagher poncing about in a raincoat then that doesn't say a lot. Radiohead probably have killed off a lot of happy music... I don't know how anyone could've sat through that Glastonbury performance, lucky for fast forward on the VCR! That said, I do like Kid A, this new album and Amnesiac aren't that great though IMO.

Oh, and talking of wussy Brit-pop, the Bluetones are playing down at the Cavern on December 10, think I'll stick with the Oysterband at St. Georges Hall though.

You're probably right. While they're good cheesy fun now in 12 months their album will probably be found in vast quantities in used record stores at knockdown prices... probably be this years Be Here Now in that respect. Especially if they don't release a follow up within the year, the "kids" that love them might have gone out and discovered some of the great rock music, the likes of Purple, Rainbow, AC/DC, Maiden, Sabbath etc. That or they'll see Spinal Tap and realise they've been sold old product

 

I think Mr Bobs scenario is the MOre likely.

The reason they seem to have make such an impact is their.... (weird saying this about an 80s style cock rock band) ....*Originality*

People have been looking for something new to add to their def leopard and queen albums and here it is. Their uniquness is what has allowed them to get so big so quick. Once that fades I think so will their appeal.

All sounds a bit serious for a band in lycra!

 

Of course they're ephemeral, but isn't that what good pop should be?

Sure, they've knicked everything from Rainbow, Queen, Def Leppard and so on, but those bands were hardly original either. At least the Darkness do it with half an ear for a tune and without much of the pomposity of the genre.

 

i think they are crap. a pub band at best,with a gimmick, they are a one trick pony. hopefully they will habe been forgotten about in the not too distant future.

 

nice first post adox

welcome to the forum

MO

 

Well, this is the first time I've opened this thread. Been ignoring it as Dom has mentioned their name in passing a few times, but not said anything about their music in detail, so just assumed they were another psy trance act!!

Having read the thread thus far, it sounds like something I'd want to hear. A band which doesn't take themselves too seriously, aren't relentless whinge bags, have a good ear for a tune, and mix it with some good time classic rock, sounds like just my type of thing.

I've been really out of touch with chart music of late. Never listen to Radio 1, hardly ever see TOTP, and whilst I normally listen to the local commercial radio station on the train on the way into work in the mornings I haven't been doing so recently due to that fact that everytime I've tuned in they have been playing some samey sounding r'n'b pap.

Stuff for people who already have Queen and Def Leopard in their collection and looking for something else similar to fil? Fair comment, I fit that naive stereotype.

 

that's perhaps where they're lacking!

 

cheers mo.


i thought i`d feel myway in first, before really saying what i think