2023 marks the 20th Anniversary of ”Permission To Land” – THE DARKNESS‘ the chart-topping, award-winning, multi-platinum debut album originally released on July 7, 2003, and helped the Classic Rock resurgence this Millennium.
To celebrate, Britain’s beloved rock band celebrate this landmark with “Permission To Land… Again“, a special 4-CD/DVD release including the original album remastered, rare B-sides, bonus unreleased demos, as well as live albums from their iconic shows at London’s Astoria (2003), Knebworth (2003) and Wembley Arena (2004). There will be as well a 2CD edition with a reduced track listing, but this box-ser is the complete experience.
20 years later, listening to ‘Permission To Land… Again’, I feel the band’s genuinely impressive ear for melody a little more. The totality with which The Darkness embraced flamboyance is part of the reason their debut album succeeds. Their sense of humor is all over the record, but it’s a sense of humor that doesn’t base itself on mere parody. And they rock…
Sifting through the demos and rarities packaged alongside the original album reveals little in the way of fascinating alternative directions the band might have pursued. On the early demos of songs that eventually made the album, the biggest deviations come in the form of a spoken word introduction set to an elfin chime at the beginning of the demo of ‘Black Shuck’, a glitzy synth part that clutters the chorus of ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’, and a slower, chunkier version of ‘Love On The Rocks With No Ice’ that benefits from the added heft.
Similarly, the B-sides and bonus tracks in the new boxset offer mainly a re-affirmation of The Darkness’ straightforwardness. Rather than use away-from-the-spotlight releases as a chance to take away the pressure to conform to a certain sound (intriguing cowboy rock & roller ‘Curse Of The Tollund Man’ being the exception) they use them to double down.
This can be for better – ‘Planning Permission’’s preposterous expression of love through the metaphor of building a conservatory, the rollicking stomper ‘The Best Of Me’ and the Powerage-indebted ‘Physical Sex’ – and for worse; often Hawkins’ effort to ramp up the rock & roll lands him at little more than caveman horniness as on the icky ‘Makin’ Out’.
The most charitable way of viewing the B-side ‘How Dare You Call This Love’ meanwhile – sample lyric “You’re so young it’s obscene / I can’t wait for the day you turn 16” – is as a blunt satire of rock stars’ historic tendencies towards relationships with underage women.
Thankfully such moments are in the minority. Taken as a whole the material collected here hasn’t aged an inch, the group were so at odds with the zeitgeist when they arrived in the first place, that they’re essentially able to sidestep the issue of sounding dated anyway.
Most of all it merely strengthens the argument that The Darkness were a band who knew from the very start that they were to be all about immediacy; early pub gigs, by all accounts, were performed with the same bombast with which the band would later headline arenas.
Of the three separate live recordings compiled on ”Permission To Land… Again”, supporting Robbie Williams on his huge summer 2003 shows at Knebworth, a high-intensity Astoria show and a triumphant Wembley headline set, it’s the first that makes the most interesting listening. Here, the band are heard playing to a crowd of 100,000, few of whom one assumes were actually there to see them, and in real time you can hear Justin Hawkins winning over vast swathes of them. Towards the end he asks outright who amongst them has been converted, receiving a great roar in response. “Everybody else, repeat after me,” he declares. “’I. AM. WRONG.’”
Highly Recommneded
Tracklist:
01. Black Shuck (03:20)
02. Get Your Hands off My Woman (02:46)
03. Growing on Me (03:31)
04. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (03:36)
05. Love Is Only a Feeling (04:20)
06. Givin' Up (03:34)
07. Stuck in a Rut (03:18)
08. Friday Night (02:55)
09. Love on the Rocks with No Ice (05:57)
10. Holding My Own (04:57)
11. Black Shuck (Demo) (03:56)
12. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (Demo) (03:54)
13. Out of My Hands (Demo) (03:33)
14. Live 'Til I Die (Demo) (03:43)
15. Love on the Rocks with No Ice (Demo) (05:47)
16. Nothin's Gonna Stop Us (Demo) (02:54)
17. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (2002 Version) (03:37)
18. Love on the Rocks with no Ice (2002 Version) (06:07)
19. Love is Only a Feeling (2002 Version) (04:20)
20. Get Your Hands off My Woman (2003 Edit Version) (02:47)
21. The Best of Me (03:27)
22. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (Single Version) (03:38)
23. Out of My Hands (03:29)
24. Makin' Out (03:40)
25. Physical Sex (03:33)
26. How Dare You Call This Love? (03:52)
27. Bareback (03:06)
28. Planning Permission (02:28)
29. Curse of the Tollund Man (03:09)
30. Get Your Hands off My Woman... Again (2004 Version) (02:41)
31. I Love You 5 Times (03:42)
32. Get Your Hands off My Woman... Again (2004 Edit Version) (02:41)
33. Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) (03:31)
34. Growing on Me (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (04:18)
35. The Best of Me (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (03:08)
36. Makin' Out (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (06:02)
37. Get Your Hands Off My Woman (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (03:37)
38. Stuck in a Rut (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (05:56)
39. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (05:11)
40. Love on the Rocks with No Ice (Live at Knebworth, 2003) (10:16)
41. Bareback (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (01:57)
42. Black Shuck (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (04:01)
43. Love Is Only a Feeling (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (04:14)
44. Get Your Hands Off My Woman (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (05:07)
45. Friday Night (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (04:21)
46. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (04:47)
47. Buffet (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (01:59)
48. Givin' Up (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (03:34)
49. Love on the Rocks with No Ice (Live at The Astoria, London, 2003) (10:33)
50. Grief Hammer (Live at Wembley, 2004) (03:47)
51. Givin’ Up (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:08)
52. Stuck in a Rut (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:37)
53. Dinner Lady Arms (Live at Wembley, 2004) (03:39)
54. Growing on Me (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:04)
55. Makin' Out (Live at Wembley, 2004) (03:52)
56. Physical Sex (Live at Wembley, 2004) (05:10)
57. Love Is Only a Feeling (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:21)
58. Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (Live at Wembley, 2004) (03:49)
59. Buffet (Live at Wembley, 2004) (03:05)
60. Black Shuck (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:16)
61. Friday Night (Live at Wembley, 2004) (02:58)
62. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:16)
63. Get Your Hands Off My Woman (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:53)
64. Love on the Rocks with No Ice (Live at Wembley, 2004) (14:22)
65. Do They Know it's Christmas (Live at Wembley, 2004) (01:48)
66. Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) (Live at Wembley, 2004) (04:13)
The Darkness – Permission To Land… Again (20th Anniversary Edition) (2023) 6 CD Box-Set, MP3+FLAC
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