If you thought that touring their gargantuan debut album, Permission To Land, was a sign The Darkness were taking the easy route and dropping down a gear, think again. The Lowestoft legends are back in the creative saddle with their eighth long player Dreams On Toast.
The Darkness – Dreams On Toast
Release Date: 28 March 2025
Words: Brian Boyle
Selling albums is hard work these days. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and that includes sliding down a fireman’s poll on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show.
That is what happened when Justin Hawkins got pranked on the prime-time Saturday night show and unexpectedly had to launch straight into I Believe In A Thing Called Love with his giggling bandmates watching on.
While such an impromptu performance deserves an upturn in physical record sales, the levitating performance hammered home the fact that through all the peaks and troughs over the last twenty-plus years, The Darkness are still dangerously shit hot.
Plus, they are still a proper album band with great titles, memorable artwork, and tunes bursting with audacious eccentricity and indelible quality. And Dreams On Toast is more of the same.
Like every album by The Darkness, the edge-of-the-seat anticipation of their unpredictability is greater than ever. There are no rules, and that is why they can open up with a non-conforming rocker called Rock And Roll Party Cowboy, a tune with unquenchable strut that will have you reaching for a stetson, or perhaps a pair of assless chaps.
But if the thoughts of bottom exposing leathers creeps you out, you may not have enjoyed the video to I Hate Myself. With a ciggy smoking Justin Hawkins looking totally unrecognisable as a self-loathing, plastic surgery-obsessed diva, it is uneasy viewing, yet at the same time, oddly compelling.
But the song could not be more different. It is a joyous and freewheeling looney tune that, despite the title, is probably the most positive-sounding song you will hear all year.
There are not many rock bands you can picture huddled around a campfire singing tales of wholesomeness to a bunch of s’more munching scouts. Well, The Darkness are one of them. Hot On My Tail’s true meaning, I suspect, is not as innocent as it sounds. There is no coming round the mountain on this one, but it is still the band at their mischievous best.
As much as we love them in full tongue-cheek mode, there is no greater listen than when they don their hard rock finery. Mortal Dread is a card-carrying headbanger and a track with all the ingredients to make Angus Young and Co green with envy.
The more tender side to the band is always an example of their unadulterated honesty. Don’t Need Sunshine oozes heartwarming simplicity, nothing remotely contrived, just delicate soul-baring melodies.
You do not hear of many love songs inspired by a sweet embrace in a misty orchard deep in the Scottish Highlands. The Longest Kiss recalls a lingering moment between Justin Hawkins and his better half and takes romanticism in rock ‘n’ roll to a whole new level. There is an undeniable Queen comparison, but the ragtime jollity is pure Darkness DNA.
How do you try and top such a serene moment? You rattle out a punked-up, supersonic riot called The Battle For Gadget Land, then draw breath with Cold Hearted Woman, a delightful little country and western ditty.
Walking Through Fire is an anthemic banger that deserves a stadium audience, a setting the band deserve and I believe will realise.
Dreams On Toast is undoubtedly their finest composition since Permission To Land and exquisitely produced by Dan Hawkins. It is also worth mentioning since drummer Rufus Taylor joined the band a decade ago, he has injected a serum of youth and enthusiasm that is really bearing fruit now.
Taylor Swift’s recent viral video dancing to I Believe In A Thing Called Love at the women’s US Open tennis final was a priceless bar of publicity gold. But The Darkness do not trade on such situations, and Dreams On Toast is stonewall evidence of that.
The Darkness – Dreams On Toast is out on 28 March 2025 via Cooking Vinyl and is available to pre-order from here.
