Album Review: The Darkness - "Motorheart"

 

The prospect of a new album from Lowestoft's daftest is never something you'll hear us complaining about here at Nite Songs. Since reforming a decade or so ago, the band have been on a pretty solid run with three of the four albums they've done since then being solid additions to the band's catalogue.

Opener Welcome Tae Glasgae barrels through on a solid headbanger of a riff but it's second track It's Love Jim that kicks things into gear properly with its joky Star Trek based lyrics, pounding drums and guitars and Justin's trademark falsetto being used just to the right degree to make things work. One thing that you'll notice about the early tracks on Motorheart is that they've got a refreshingly stripped-back feel with an almost garage rock like intensity to the songs. Given that the Darkness have more than once in the past fallen into the trap of over-egging the musical pudding to the detriment of the tunes, it's quite refreshing to hear them getting back to basics like this.

Of course, they can't resist being daft here and there though - the title track, despite its tip-of-the-hat-to-Lemmy title, blasts in on an almost Metallica speed lightning fast riff before going into a gloriously silly symphonic style chorus. It also appears to be about sex droids. Well obviously. The Power And The Glory Of Love is classic Darkness with its AC/DC meets Status Quo riff and fist-in-the-air chorus and proves to be one of the album's highlights so far. Former single Jussy's Girl sees them going for a bit more of a melodic style - not bad but it just suffers a bit from following on from a couple of very strong tracks.

Sticky Situations is a distant cousin of Queen's Somebody To Love with its lilting melody and Mercury style vocals. And yes, before you ask, it's about wanking. No-One Can See Me Cry sees Dan Hawkins cutting loose with an absolute beast of an Eddie Clarke-indebted riff to pick the tempo back up. It's Eastbound which stands out as the quality track on the second half of the album though, a heartfelt ode to the group's hometown of Lowestoft powered along on a Thin Lizzy style riff - there's definitely a hint of The Boys Are Back In Town about it but it's done in such a way that the band put their own stamp on the formula nicely. Which just leaves the shamelessly '80s indebted glam metal meets power-pop of Speed Of The Nite Time to bring things to a close. Cheesy as you like but undeniably enjoyable, it's the Darkness in a nutshell really.

I have to be honest, the Darkness have done better albums than this since reforming but Motorheart is still a respectable effort - it's just lacking a couple of really killer tunes to elevate it from good to brilliant. But still, it'll keep the group's still impressively big fanbase happy and at least it shows they've got a fair bit of fire left in the tank.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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