The Darkness released One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back on November 28, 2005. I was excited to hear the second album after seeing the band live twice and listening to parts of Permission to Land.

The band had a very campy, tongue-in-cheek style that was refreshing and a heroic nod to the glam rock of the 70's and 80's. The falsetto on Justin Hawkins, the pants...oh those pants all well manicured into a tight package for your consumption. I was shocked the band wasn't better received here in the States, but maybe it was because their lyrics were about sex, drugs, and rock n roll, something our Puritanical culture can't accept nor our FCC allow on the radio waves. (No radio play=no sale)

I heard the lead single "One way ticket" on the radio and was shocked to find out the album was already out prior to the release of the single. That was a bad sign. I listened to the lyrics and was even more shocked with all the drug references. How did this get on the radio? Still, the single was fantastic and a much better single than "I Believe in a Thing Called Love."

I immediately went home and bought the album. It remains top in my iPod rotation. It avoids the sophmore curse that plagues many bands, by better song writing, catchier hooks, and crushing solos (not the Eddie Van Halen kind, but the "Wow this is overblown cheese and I love it" kind). The CD is just a blast to play when driving or throwing a party for uptight guests. If you are not doing coke off a hooker by "Dinner Lady Arms" I will personally refund your money.

The lead single is much different on the album. It has a Lord of the Rings style panflute opening. Then you hear someone cutting cocaine and smelling it for imperfections. That is when you hear the drums and the cowbell. It takes only 1 minute and 30 seconds to hear the first falsetto yell. Take a look at these lyrics from just the first song:

I've always tried to keep my vices under wraps
But a coach-load of mutes would appear talkative chaps
If they had seen fit to join me for a couple of hits
Now my septum is in tatters and I've still got the runs
Burned for a moment, then it kicked like a mule
The strangers I recruited thought it was rocket fuel
Several massive choking lines of glorious gack

Yes that was on the radio unedited. It was early in the morning, but still on the radio. It changed my life.

The fun and frivolty doesn't stop there, the band hammers on to the next song on the album "Knockers." It is the Darkness attempt at Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls, but with big, lush breasts. Take a look at the first lines:

Oh lord, I'm so bored
Living on my own
You're devilish and dirty
They say your pushing thirty
Well pushing thirty stone

Those lyrics can charm the pants off any large breasted woman you know. Try it, but bring this album and a dimebag of coke...just to be sure.

The guitars mixed with an over abundance of falsetto makes this the absolute perfect wedding soundtrack. I play it on the way to church, on my way to feed the homeless, and through funeral processions. At first people are upset, but they listen to the dualing lead guitars, the high pitched squealing, and the well-written lyrics, and they forgive me. I toss them a whimsical hat and we all pose as if we were in the Darkness.

Bottom line. Give this album a listen, if not a buy. The band rests in peace now with the egression of Justin Hawkings due to drug and alcohol problems. I miss the band as they were the most ingenious thing to hit the airwaves since Howard Stern making women climax. live on the radio The band continues on without Justin under the new name Stone Gods, but I doubt they have the same lyrics or campy style.

Here is the video for One Way Ticket. The teeth are actually Justin's. He is British.