I have to say, while many might have assumed otherwise, I was absolutely never into The Darkness. For those still unfamiliar, the Darkness are a British rock band who first appeared around 2003 with what can best be described as a schtick. Essentially, The Darkness play a brazenly cliché-ridden brand of hard rock that cribs liberarlly from some of the more hackneyed tropes of 80’s heavy metal and stadium rock. They even managed a big hit single, at the time, that being “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” But while scrupulously studied in their cheeky homage to the rawwwwwk of eras bygone, it never felt organic, to me. Sure, there have been some truly amazing parody bands over the years – my alltime favorites being the mighty Dread Zeppelin and The Upper Crust – but I just couldn’t endorse The Darkness, for whatever reason. It all seemed so forced. As such, they just irritated me.
So, I’ve pretty much ignored them, ever since.
Two decades and seven studio albums later, meanwhile, the band is still at it (their most recent album, Motorheart, came out in 2021). I have successfully managed to happily avoid all their music, but recently came across the YouTube channel of The Darkness’ lead singer, that being one Justin Hawkins. Over the course of almost 200 videos all captured pretty much over the past year, Hawkins has been ruminating on various musical quandaries, delving into popular songs, parsing of-the-moment trends, discussing divisive figures, dispelling cultural misconceptions and the like, all with a thoughtful approach, an accomplished ear and a endearingly quick wit. In short, he is informative, insightful and almost always entirely hilarious.
It’s almost enough to get me to reconsider his band’s music.
I also love that he has the faces of the four members of Queen from the cover of the much-maligned Hot Space tattooed on his fist.
Here’s a great recent episode. Ride on, Justin, ride on!
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