Album Review: The Darkness - One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back (2005)

I don't have any particular right to like this album at all. It reeks of all the makings of a horrible album, and in truth it probably is. But damn it, I like it. In continuity with all things 'Darkness', I still admire the desperate attempt at looking and sounding retro, and the image that comes with being something one actually isn't. And they've also done a good job in sounding like Queen after a kick in the nuts. In fact, the only thing they've really stuffed up on here is the inclusion of track 10, "Blind Man." It is truly awful. In fact, my advice would be to avoid it like you'd avoid a woman with a conspicuous bulge in her jeans. But having said that, it is otherwise a worthy successor to their debut album, Permission to Land, which sounded more like Def Leppard and AC/DC than this one does, which as mentioned earlier, tends to lean more toward 1970s Queen. And the most worthy tracks? "One Way Ticket", "Knockers", "Dinner Lady Arms", in my opinion. But I'll let you decide which is best. A-

Album Review: Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)

Continually reneging on my promise that I could never take up a certain genre of music or listen to a specific artist, I can now openly admit to enjoying the fruits of the genre known as 'grunge'. Back in the early nineties, I hated grunge just as much as I hated heavy metal back in the late eighties, and I held the rest of the emerging alternative rock scene with equal disdain. However, after the process of maturation that comes with a increasingly diverse musical palette, I inevitably and invariably find myself indulging in the masterpiece that is Nirvana's Nevermind. Sounding a lot like Neil Young, but only of course, when he's angry, this collection of Gen-X ballads has finally struck a chord with me. My personal favorite is "In Bloom", but don't let that distract you from other top-notch numbers, such as the anthemic "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are" and "Polly." And the worst you could possibly do here is decide to wear flannel. A-