Album Review: The Darkness – Hot Cakes

Back from a 7 year hiatus, primed and ready with arguably the best album of their career, and touring with Lady Gaga in Europe – all is good in the Darkness camp

The Darkness – Hot Cakes

Record Label: Canary Dwarf, Play It Again Sam, Wind-Up

Produced By: Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Nick Brine

Released On: August 20, 2012

Genre: Glam Metal, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Music Trajectory Rating: 4/5

The Darkness could have returned from this 7 year hiatus with an album chalk full of songs all about the sorrows and struggles of lead singer Justin Hawkins over the years. But what they did instead is return with an album chalk full of rocking, fun, and catchy songs. Instead of some personal loathing, drug recovery album, they got back to what they do best. Rock music needed The Darkness to return in this way. Brilliant.

During recording Justin Hawkins said of the album “‘Hot Cakes’ has a nice raw feel to it like the first album had, with occasional luxurious moments akin to the second.” This is spot on, and upon listening to Hot Cakes you will see (and hear) that this album has something about it, like Permission To Land. 2nd album One Way Ticket to Hell… and Back was not a bad album per se, it just failed to catch on like its predecessor. The Darkness did what many bands do when they have a hit first record; they spend a bunch of time and money and make a highly produced 2nd album which might technically be better than the 1st album but is not received as well by music fans. When this happens, bands either fall off or show what they are made of by returning with a 3rd album that is often a combination of the first two releases. That is just what The Darkness did with Hot Cakes; it is very much a combination of their first two releases, like Justin said. But Hot Cakes goes beyond just being a combination of prior releases. It sounds fresh, new, and just might be the best record of The Darkness’ career.

There have been 3 singles released off the album so far, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” “Every Inch of You,” and “Everybody Have A Good Time,” all coming out before the album was released. There are many more potential singles off the album – its just that good!