I love the first Darkness album, though I recognize you may not. But either way, it’s been hard not to feel a little embarrassed for Justin Hawkins, who quit the band as a way of maintaining his sobriety, launched a number of ill-conceived musical flops (solo album, World Cup song, failed Eurovision entry), and is now all-but-forgotten in America. Which is why you might approach his new project, Hot Leg, with some trepidation. Fear not! Or, at least, only fear for 1:17 of the song “Trojan Guitar,” at which point a ridiculous but wholly appropriate voice snottily parodies Britpop. After a long solo, it goes all-acoustic, with Hawkins deploying every register of his voice, and when the band crashes back in, well, it got me. The breadth here is wider than mere glam-metal, and though that should be horrifying, it seems to work. [YouTube]
Hot Leg Uses Protection
November 3rd, 2008 // 4 Comments
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This will probably ruin any goodwill I may have ever earned (or will ever earn) in this site’s comments section, but here it is: I think the second Darkness album (“One Way Ticket To Hell And Back”)is a great album. The fact that it was absolutely slaughtered in the press really infuriates me. I think it’s a big fun record with some really smart melodic stuff going on in it. And it really gets me that people bash it for “stealing” stuff from any given 70′s hard rock band, while the same critics praised “Permission To Land” for doing essentially the same thing. It seems in the cases of both records, so much critical writing was focused on what the band is that very little attention was given to the actual songwriting and performance, which in my mind transcends any caricature of what they’re “pretending to be.” And in the end, I think most everyone can agree that Justin Hawkins knows his way around a melody (no matter how tight his pants are).
I liked both albums, the second a bit less though. I thought the production was just too over the top for a 4 piece rock band. I feel the first had stronger songs overall. He can sing a little.
That sounds like a terrible Monty Python sketch.
I guess if you like the