The Darkness - Permission To Land(Image credit: V2 Records)Blacken My ThumbThat Sure Ain't RightGirls Best FriendMessin' Around Cherry LaneGet Up! (Don't Fight It)Hong Kong FuryWhat I've LostYou Can't Find MeDon't Come KnockingLucilleI Got No WordsThe Datsuns relocated to the UK in 2002, looking like Led Zeppelin with ironed hair, and sounding much the same. The trousers were tight, the guitars were wielded like weapons and, with a garage sound closer to The MC5 than to Crowded House, the fact that The Datsuns are from New Zealand was easily overlooked.Two years later a second album arrived.
It was a collection of sweaty, fuzzed-up rock, this time produced by (and also with keyboards by) ex-Zep man John Paul Jones. Outta Sight/Outta Mind didn’t have the immediacy of tracks like Harmonic Generator or Motherfucker From Hell (from their eponymous debut) but it was a raucous 40 minutes filled with strident guitar breaks and Plant-esque lung bursts that adhered to all the right rock clichés without once encroaching into Darkness territory.Blacken My Thumb was a vicious opener, and the pace didn't relent from there.
Messin’ Around was pure ZZ Top with its low-slung riffs and no-nonsense drumming, Get Up! (Don’t Fight It) was cartoon punk – like I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction in a tearing hurry – and Hong Kong Fury was a future live favourite with its Who bass flurries and mantra-like chorus.Stream on SpotifyStream on Apple Music Every week, Album of the Week Club listen.
