02
Dec
2005
10:00

“One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back”

The Darkness’s first album “Permission To Land” absolutely blew me away as one of the best albums I’d heard in a long while, so naturally when their second album “One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back” came out on Tuesday I put on my best glam spandex catsuit, strutted into my local record store and said in my best British Falsetto “Where’s the new Darkness album, mate?” Sadly I found that it was Monday and I’d jumped the gun by a day so I would have to wait a day to plant my legs solidly in an “A” shape, raise my arm to the sky, purse my lips and rock out.
On Tuesday I had a groupie bring me the album at work (O.K. so it was my wife, but that doesn’t fit the story as well.) My first impression was a bit of disappointment. Not that it’s a bad album by any means. It was just that I was so blown away by the first album that naturally my expectations were high. After having a few more days with the new album, I’ve warmed a bit to it, but I can tell that it will never be as popular with me as “Permission to Land”. It’s definitely not quite as straight on rockin as “Permission”, but there is still much enjoyment to be had.
This album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker who produced Queen, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, The Cars and Devo. In fact, the piano on the album is the same piano used on Bohemian Rhapsody and still bears the red wine stains from Freddie Mercury. I would say the Queen influence can be heard quite heavily on this album. All in all I think it’s definitely worth a listen and most likely an addition to your collection, however I can’t quite call it as much as a “must have” as “Permission to Land” is. However the more I listen to it the more I like it and I still highly recommend it if you dug their first album. Still one of the best albums I’ve heard in a while.

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