Album Review: The Darkness - Permission to Land (2003)

Any rock act since the turn of the millennium that dared to don leopard-skin tights and sing in a falsetto so high windows would shatter would under ordinary circumstances be advised to sell tomatoes, bags of gravel and pointy rocks at their shows in lieu of merchandise.  That shit went out in 1991 - well, that's what some people might've told you.  "Glam is dead", they said. "Give it up."  But nae.  One band decided to go one further and blend the stylings of bands such as AC/DC, Def Leppard and Queen together and mix it with the fashion sense of some obscure eighties hair metal band to come up with the most bold and audacious thing since Bob Dylan gave his folkie audience the ass and went electric.  And like Dylan, the Darkness found significant success in the gamble.  What could've easily have been mistaken for some silly comedy act (had we not known better) turned into a polished, fun, clap-your-hands-in-the-air set of surprisingly good singalong jingles that'd make you feel good about life more than a line of coke could ever hope to achieve.  Permission to Land could have been an even bigger flop than Johnny Holmes' flaccid pork sword, but to all our surprise, it was a hit.  And here's why - from "Black Shuck", "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" to "Givin' Up", its unabashed silliness and Pythonesque proclivities for overdoing things doesn't fly in the face of its otherwise serious attempt at being a legit rock album.  Which is a good thing too, because it is a seriously good album at that.  This album wasn't really "Growing on Me", because I took to it like a duck to water the very first time I heard it, which was a while ago now.  Noice.  A-