The Darkness. Wow. I loved these guys, and it might be because they were so isolated in my music memory, and that’s why I think of them so fondly, but there’s no denying they were entertaining. I don’t think any song in their (2 album) catalog better exemplifies their sound than their first single, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”… guitar solos piled on top of each other and the most ridiculous falsetto chorus lines you’ve ever heard all sandwiched between hard driving power chords. The video for this song made things even more unbelievable… seeing what the band looked like only made things seem more confusing. Are these guys for real? Is this a parody band? The video had space ships, monsters, lightning shooting out of guitars and everything in between, but somehow it all worked.
The Darkness became insanely popular, mostly because they actually backed themselves up with decent songs, but also because they stuck to their guns and had an image that recalled everything goofy about the 80’s hair metal scene and made it semi-cool again. That’s pretty impressive. Watch the video and remember: