Album Review: Dreams On Toast by The Darkness

Impeccably arranged and brimming with their trademark charm, the lighthearted maximalists nevertheless find themselves caught between sincerity and spectacle Twenty years on, The Darkness remain committed to their spandex-clad maximalism. Dreams On Toast, their eighth album, sees them reaching once more for the semi-parodic, theatrical rock that made their name, but often feeling its age in the process. At times, their self-awareness adds charm, but the record struggles to find a comfortable balance between sincerity and spectacle – leaving it caught between nostalgia and something less assured.

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Dreams on Toast sits comfortably alongside these latter-day efforts; although increasingly, it's the band's admittedly amusing combination of swaggering rock pageantry and distinctly British knowingness -- think Monty Python and a heavy pour of Jack Daniels -- that does most of the heavy lifting here. While the songs themselves are generally of the reliable calibre we've come to expect, they're all over the place stylistically to an almost distracting degree, with the band adding traditional country, pop-punk and even a stab at (gulp) rapping to their trademark brand of '70s glam rock. Then again, the album opens almost too straightforwardly, with the textbook AC/DC riff of previously released single "Rock and Roll Party Cowboy," a drôle but ultimately inert statement of intent that basically just lists a bunch of clichéd rock imagery over a heavy riff, KMFDM style.

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The Darkness are known for imbuing glam metal with homespun English kitsch, fuelled by Justin Hawkins’ piercing, polished falsettos and buzz-saw guitar riffs. A riff-driven band, the Darkness benefit from Rufus Tiger Taylor’s tom-tom heavy drums, and Frankie Poullain’s rubbery basslines. Their musical acumen was never in doubt, but their determination to write novelty songs, laced in Queen‘s imprint, helped distinguish them from their British contemporaries for much of the 21st century.

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