Album Review: Hot Cakes

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The third studio album from The Darkness was released in August, and if you can listen to a high pitched male without cringing and, if you’re a guy, feeling your manhood slip away slightly, then Hot Cakes should be on your musical menu.

I delved into bit of (Wikipedia) research before writing the review, as The Darkness came out in 2003 with that song I Believe in a Thing Called Loved and then, following a few less than hit songs, faded away. Nearly ten years after that notoriously high pitched song, album three is out following a five year hiatus in the late 2000’s to overcome personal problems in the band. Hot Cakes is a ‘reunion album’ (does two albums and a break constitute a reunion?) and it brings you right smack back into the early 2000’s with tight pants wearing lead singer Justin Hawkins, and the rest of the original line up. To me, The Darkness is a delicious guilty pleasure, and I love some good Hot Cakes.

The Darkness start of Hot Cakes with Every Inch of You, the song they released off the album second. This is the comeback song for them and the one which makes me want to rush out and buy the album (or rush to turn iTunes on to download it). Guitar riffs from the starts and that high pitched voice coming in before a minute is up yelling “suck my cock” is exactly what The Darkness should be doing music wise. Thank goodness this is the first song listed on the album, because it makes you want to keep on listening to Hot Cakes, and the song which makes reminds you they ARE The Darkness and THIS [craziness] is what they do best.

Hot Cakes doesn’t disappoint in continuing to deliver the sweet sounds of The Darkness. From Everybody Have a Good Time to Keep Me Hangin’ On and the superb first single released Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us, the album is amusing and fun and, with summer just around the corner, it’s a must listen to in the sun with a beer in hand. She is just a girl, Eddie, is another must listen to track, especially if you keep in mind the lead singer wrote it about his brother’s ex girlfriend without him agreeing to it. The tone is taken down a notch with a cover of Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out) – this is the only song inclusion I questioned. The cover itself is fine, but I don’t think a cover on your reunion album is quite right; this is a chance to show what you’ve got what it takes to comeback, not rejoicing in someone else’s work.

Overall, Hot Cakes is a great comeback / reunion / third album from The Darkness. It may not out of this world amazing, but there’s nothing else quite like this fun and funky band out there and I recommend getting amongst their music – just be warned it’s accompanied by a lot of high pitched vocals from one small but outrageous male lead singer.