Permission to Land

Okay so The Darkness formed and they thought, “Let’s indulge in every hair metal cliche and play the hell out of them.” And somewhere around then the lead singer thought, “I should sing like Freddie Mercury after sucking a helium balloon.” And most importantly they agreed, “Let’s have fun and not overthink anything.” I completely understand why someone would fall head over heels for their shtick. I can’t get mad at music that wants to entertain me as much as this does. But I found myself rolling my eyes about as often as I was banging my head.

Fun fact for me. My buddy loved "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" so much, but he didn't have an iTunes account. Since he was my office mate, I purchased the album for him on the spot and listened to it on repeat for about a month. First iTunes album I purchased. The thing I love most about the Darkness isn't that they missed the hair band era by several decades. It's that they said Fuck It. This is the music we love and we're going to be the best damn hair band of the new millennium. Their love of the genre is obvious in their execution. Brilliant debut album.

If you let this stand alone on its music, it's ok. Vocally, it makes chalk screeching across a blackboard sound like fine opera. Listened. Check. Done. Next.

I have this album. Got it for £2 at a car boot sale. Picked up some Tupac, White Stripes and Billy Idol at the same time. Less than £10 for the haul. Anyway, it is what it is - a fun, colourful oddity, which seemed to emerge at the time from nowhere, glowing neon amidst a slurry of Creed and Nickelback. Time has been relatively kind, and the big songs still have a kick to them. A charitable four; guitars crunch, vocals soar and there's an infectious energy throughout.

This is one of those tongue-in-cheek-cliche bands right? This album can't be serious <reads the Wiki page> "Permission to Land is the debut studio album by the British glam rock band"… Seriously. This is my 538th album on this list and probably the 700th British band that Demory put on here instead of a proper band from that genre that launched the genre. I'm about thisclose to dropping this project due to Robert fucking Demory's insanity. 2/5.

An album that was *everywhere* when it was out - every song was played in the pubs and clubs of Glasgow (not just the singles). Mostly very silly, but with a few more poignant moments. Reminds me of being a student in the big city, and gets am extra stars for that!

Campy, tongue in cheek, but undeniably fun. An over the top auditory diary. If you can’t smile while listening to this, you are truly dead inside. Will listen again.

Not particularly deep by any means, but a hell of a lot of fun. Kind of like Journey on speed, but with F-bombs.

I assumed that they were a one hit wonder band and that this would be fairly meh...but I was wrong! This is a gloriously daft and superbly unself conscious album . They throw in all the metal tropes and make it work . you can feel the genuine love and affection for the music, style and genre and it is great.

It's sort of everything you want from a rock album.

This album rocks. When it first came out I was in my early 20s and at first I thought I liked them ironically but they actually ended up being badass.

Hello The Darkness, my old friends! A joke of similar quality to this joke of an album. I vaguely remember the dismal state of UK music at the time this came out, when 3rd-rate karaoke AC/DC seemed like a breath of fresh air. Can you imagine?! It's all probably genuine and heartfelt, like a college talent show Queen covers band. Doesn't mean I have to sit through it. A mean 1* for wasting my time. Looking forward to Right Said Fred next, or The Shirehorses

This is legit hair rock made by enthusiasts that is content to be nothing beyond what inspired it. The Darkness’s music doesn’t excite me, but it’s fun, well-made, and I applaud them for digging in their spurs and making passionate love to their hobby-horse. It’s not their fault that I keep expecting to hear Brasseye’s “Playground Bang Around”.

Against all odds the album lives up to its ridiculous cover art. Kudos, The Darkness, you nailed it.

fun but a whole album is a bit much

Fuck this album is so fun. The Darkness knew what they were doing and it works. Yeah it's got that cheese to it, but they lean into it and it's fucking awesome.

This album was my liberation into rock music as a teenager. Will forever love it.

I got this when it came out and played it to death. Everything about it just rules. Big songs, goofiness with ambition, catchiness. I still listen a fair bit, and it hasn't dropped an inch in quality in 20 years. If anything, it's even better now that everything else sucks so much in 2023. 5/5 and I'd give it 6 if I could.

A surprisingly heart felt album when listened to in the right context

More like the Dorkness, amirite folks? Still an incredible debut. Glam rock taken cranked all the way up. Still tickles me that Justin Hawkins was beefing with Lemmy and Lemmy basically had no idea who they were.

Yep. Still love this. High energy, great production, and man I would have loved to see them live.

A truly self indulgent hair metal album, but it ticks all the boxes

I initially heard this album described as satirical like Bad News or Tenacious D, but it is a legitimately hot shot of badass rock and roll.

Beyond the well known single the album is strong throughout. Any music which has fun at it's core like this I'm always going to get on with no matter the genre. It hits hard and keeps it up, when you think it may get tiring the sheer energy pushes through. They never quite lived up to this album but damn if this isn't an incredibly enjoyable listen all over again. fuck it it's a 5

Super fun. There's a self-awareness that lands on the earnest side and really elevates the whole thing. Committing to listening to this list means having to wade through a lot of New Wave Britpop, but finding albums like this one make it worth the trouble. Best track: I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Surprisingly good, I didn't rate the darkness when they came out but in retrospect this is actually a fantastic album

I've never heard of this group and I'm not sure why. This is VERY 2003 music and I dig it.the vocals are a little distracting because they're so high-pitched, but the dude can yell and that's great. The first YouTube ad that I got was one of those \"claim benefits\" ads and it was a video of a woman firing a gun with a voiceover by a dude. The wrinkle here is that the video bad been edited to give the woman a huge dumpy and the dude only said \"so in case y'all didn't know, the government is lying to us\" so that set the mood. Then a Mazda CX-90 ad. Pretty standard. Club Carwash, some local car wash place, then Temu.

A glam rock album? With a Christmas song (in some versions)? With a high register singer?! AND THE LEAD SINGER COVERED A SPARKS SONG LATER IN HIS CAREER?!? I haven't listened yet but this may line-up to be quite the hit with me. While certainly glam, we're talking Journey and some hints of Queen more than Sparks, which was obviously my hope, but I still enjoyed this a bit, even it was hard to place this album and its sound. We were going pretty hard rock one moment, to showing remnants to what was to come with the emo wave of music, and then just straight up the most steretypical 70s glam metal, thirty years late. Either way, it's enjoyable enough to be barely a 4, it definitely helps that it's a shorter album, making the parts I disliked more being swift. The highlight was most certainly the lead singer's vocals when he chose to use them in just the right way. Again, a very light 4.

Technically, it's not bad. The drums are a bit boring, and there is generally the same pattern in nearly every song. There is way too much falsetto for my liking, but it's not as bad as Sparks.

Okay

Anglo music's two-decade peek rearward produced some 2000s artifacts which already look a little lopsided; In fairness, one is guaranteed to blindly plunge into the equivalent at least a few times. And this glam revival isn't bad at all! The stickiness seems to come from anachronism purely, but anachronism isn't all that happened in the studio.

Funny

cool ig, nothing special

It's not terrible and I know it's a bit of a goof. But the schtick only lasts for so long before it gets annoying. Plus, his voice irritates me.

Throwback Cock Rock that should probably be thrown back.

This doesn't hold up at all. I saw The Darkness live about 15 years ago and I grew up listening to this album, but this is just a throwback to American hard rock/glam metal with nothing unique about it. Even other nostalgia bait bands, like Jamiroquai, at least do something interesting with their genre. The 1001 doesn't need more hard rock, and of all the hard rock, this definitely isn't one you need to listening to. I Believe In A Thing Called Love is still a bop though

Eh. Feels like the novelty hasn't worn back on.

Blegh

Parody? Loving homage? Superlative winners of "Born in the Wrong Decade?" Whatever the Darkness' inspiration, there are a lot of things that they nailed on "Permission to Land." Most notably, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" is timeless and perfectly captures what they were going for. There are a couple other decent songs, but most of the album is marred by overindulgence. Especially vocal overindulgence. Justin Hawkins has the talent and range to pull it off, but he lacks restraint, screaming and wailing where it doesn't fit.

Meh

Did the book's authors have a quota to fill for certain genres or decades? That would explain this shrill, derivative yawnfest making the cut. Wikipedia inadvertently summed up the album's mediocrity quite well: On Metacritic, "the album earned an average score of 79, based on 19 reviews." Yes 19 people reviewed it and the average score was a C+. Yet somehow this is an album we must listen to before we die. Yeah right. Like I said--quota.

Here's the thing this is my least favorite style of rock music. Brings back nightmare memories of the 80s and bands like Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Poison and many many others. And the singer Oh my God...the Celine Dion of Hair metal. Please no more albums like this. 1.5 stars

If Tiny Tim went metal!

Bad hair band ... with bad hair

Overplayed and overblown. Nothing they did hadn't been done before. I just think of Russell Brand when I think of this band. Appalling hair band.

There was a time in the early 2000s where every album review was about finding the "saviour of rock." Listening to this, you know you'd be able to find a review of Permission to Land saying that exactly about The Darkness. Listening to the album was a lot of fun and only has a few moments where it doesn't still stand up today (jokes about being a junky don't land so hard _after_ you've quit the band and been to rehab). Sure with 2025 hindsight we know that ultimately The Darkness weren't going to save rock and roll, but you can see why people thought they might...

I'm closing in on album 1,001 and I was just thinking about this album and whether I had got it on the list yet. I remember when it came out and my brother was telling me I had to listen to this new band out of the UK. And I thought I don't need to bother with a new band doing classic / glam rock in 2003 - that's stupid and a few decades too late. And then I heard the opening lick to I Believe in a Thing Called Love. Yes please! Sure, the whole song sounds like a Queen ripoff but it is oh so fun. Soon after a buddy bought this album and we listened to that track and the whole album incessantly for about a week. Could not put it down. We'd call everyone from work over to our desk (or car in the parking lot) just to listen to tracks with us and head bang. This album oozes sex, drugs, and rock and roll. To steal a line from Black Shuck, this is a band "that doesn't give a f%#k" - they just want to party hard and rock hard. And they party and rock HARD. Heavy guitars and bass, pounding drums, decadent guitar solos and needless but infectious high-pitched vocals ("Guitar!!!"), and yeah, explicit sexual or drug references and F bombs for no reason, Exhibit 1 - Get Your Hands Off My Woman...mother f%#ker. Exhibit 2 - Stickin' that f%#kin' shit into my arms...Givin' Up, givin' up, givin' a f%#k. Plus some over the top power ballads for good measure (Love Is Only a Feeling, Holding My Own). Everything done to the excess but gloriously fun. I get it if others think the whole album and band is stupid. But I f'n love this album. This is what happens when you don't take yourself too seriously and just try to rock, which is what the 70s did and what the 2000s needed.

This is absolutely ridiculous, but also very fun

I got this in my other "project" last month. It was a true blessing. I had previously disliked The Darkness, but have since changed my mind. Having listened again my original review is unchanged, I actually like it more.

I guess this site is continuing the tradition of giving me a really excellent album after an absolutely terrible one with Permission To Land and man oh man this album is seriously amazing. It brings back a lot of the glam metal elements from the glam metal bands from the 80s like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard while mixing in a fair bit of power metal elements as well. The vocals here are fun even if i can see why some people would find them a bit too much but the main star of the show is obviously the musicianship. The music here is nothing but amazing guitar solos, fun, catchy melodies and everything else you need in a great glam metal album. I truly love this one and think its one great late glam metal album. Best Song: Love on the Rocks with No Ice Worst Song: Growing On Me

i love the darkness

Really nostalgic and great fun.

Slayed

You know, when they first appeared in the mainstream I hated them. I didn't like Justin's vocals. I've grown up since then, and I can respect their work. I now have massive respect for Justin Hawkins as a musician and entertainer. Still not a fan of "A Thing Called Love", but this is a great album otherwise. Big sound, hard hitting riffs and some classy solos. "Get Your Hands off My Woman" is a banger!

Permission to Land is a loud, fun, and totally over-the-top rock album. I remember when “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” was everywhere, but I never paid attention to who the band was. This was my first time hearing The Darkness — and now I’m wondering what took me so long. The hit single is great, but honestly, it’s not even the third or fourth best song here. This whole album is packed with high-energy rock that sounds like it came straight out of the ’80s — and I mean that in the best way. You can hear the Brian May and Angus Young influence in the guitars, and the singer’s voice is wild — powerful and full of range, just like the best glam rock frontmen. My favorite song is “Givin’ Up.” It’s got killer riffs, a catchy chorus, and the kind of energy that makes you want to play it on repeat. From start to finish, the album is just fun. No filler, no slow parts — just pure rock and roll.

What can I say? I love this fucker! For some reason this cheese ball affair was the coolest thing to me when I was 18. Big fat guitar riffs and generous usage of the word FUCK will have that effect on a young lad. Listening now, I wish there was maybe 20% less falsetto singing. Highlights: “Black Shuck”, “Growing On Me”, “Givin’ Up”, “Friday Night”

Always missed this album except the lead single, but it's really great - sounds more like a great rework of 80s metal, that a parody, which it seemed to be after Thing Called Love

This album is absolutely rammed full of nostalgia for me. When I was released, I think I hadn’t come across any glam rock or even hard rock before, so I didn’t understand why this catsuit-wearing fella singing falsetto was blowing everyone’s minds. But being so inescapable, I’d keep hearing it and it didn’t take long until I loved it and needed to hear more. This album is the perfect mix of hard rock, phenomenal vocals, and being tongue in cheek enough to give the essence of a band that are there for the fun. If somehow you haven’t heard this before, then you need to.

I believe in a thing called love slaps so hard

Okay college beer pong music days, hell yeah

That was great

Such a fun album. Justin Hawkins has a way to encapsulating everything that is awesome about this type of music, and has amazing musicianship to go along with it. 4.5/5

10/10 NO NOTES

Perfect vocal! Nice music. Friday Night is a masterpiece.

Funtimes.

Classic and maybe a classic case of peaking too early

Don't think just enjoy. It doesn’t break any new grounds but I still had a ton of fun with it. Rating: 4.6

While his voice takes some getting used to, the songwriting and performances are great. This album must have been a light in The Darkness at a time of alternative rock slop.

tasty riffs on this one

I wish I could give this an extra star for showing up on a Saturday.

Banger after banger. So good. Last song is a tad weak

no skips loved this

No notes, 5 stars all round

Fantastic rock album! 1001 album worthy: Yes - 13/25

We met Justin Fletcher when Houmous & Chutney were touring in 2006. He’s much thinner and considerably worse with children in real life than on the telly. 4.5

Straight out the gate with some AC/DC guitar chord stylings. This album would fit in well in the late 80's. Sounds like they're having fun, which is the whole point of rock and roll.

Love this album. Been in my collection for years. Great start to finish.

If you want falsetto proto-metal

I wonder if anyone else noticed the inconsistency with the volume in the recording? Or was it just my Spotify playback when I was listening? Either way, love this album. The rock and energy of this are just so fun!

This album is rockin! I was hopeful when I saw it was British glam rock, and it did not disappoint. Great energy, a lot of super catchy, rock ‘n roll jams, and seemingly heartfelt emotions. This whole thing feels like a story about the rise and fall of love and sex and relationships. So that was an interesting thread throughout it too. I was familiar with I Believe in a Thing Called Love, which is a great song, but the rest was new to me. Really enjoyed this!

Did not expect to see this here! Listened through it at least once before, but was a while ago. Remember hearing 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' when it came out and I thought it was a bit of a weird one, but still catchy. Listening through the album now it definitely feels like one of those ones where you go "oh, I completely forgot about this, what happened to those guys?!". The music seems to take influence from the heavy riffs of perhaps AC/DC, but with a completely different tone added with Hawkins' singing. And I think it works very well together. Hawkins wearing a tight glam rock body appearance is somehow what you would expect when listening to the songs, but I feel like they have quite a lot of self distance and do it more in an ironic way, rather than that being how they view themselves. It's nowhere near Kiss in my opinion, and that's a good thing. 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' is probably the most recognized one, but I actually think the whole album is really good, with other favourites such as 'Friday Night', 'Love On The Rocks With No Ice', 'Holding My Own' to name a few. I can't understate how cool of a singer I think Hawkins is. His falsettos are incredible, and he takes this from being generic rock and roll, to something completely unique. I was planning on giving this a 4 star rating, but I'm actually going to be generous and give this a weak 5 star rating. Forgot how many good songs here are.

I was so excited to see this on the list, one of my favorite albums of all time. In college, a stupid boy told me to check out The Darkness. They were so fun, it made the stupid boy crush worth it in the end. The album is just pure fun. Silly, irreverent, the perfect vocals, and banging tracks.

Five starts… just because! At least 4 REALLY good songs.. love on the rocks with no ice , worthy of a mention just for the title. There is leaning into hamming it up, then there’s The Darkness. The moments of sheer joy far outweigh the poor bits.

The 20-year nostalgia cycle is VERY evident here. If I had never heard of The Darkness and if “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” hadn’t been everywhere in the early aughts, I’d believe you if you told me this was from 1986. Good, fun album you can blast out of your car speakers. Who cares if it’s not wholly (or at all) original?!

Good from beginning to end

I love this rekid.

I remember blasting this in my friends car circa 2005 and loving every minute, time has not dulled that experience at all. Great album, full stop

It’s 2006. I am 18 and A friend of mine has burnt me a picture disk CD containing both Permission to Land AND One Way Ticket to Hell… and Back. I am rocking the fuck out

Nice driving guitar

Another album I know very well, I bought it after hearing 'I believe in a thing called love' on Soccer AM. I was blown away by the album, and still am now. I don't think there's a bad track on it. I don't think there are too many bands with such a distinctive, identifying sound.

I went back and forth between four and five stars on this a few times. Honestly, it represents the best of Glam and hair metal. Much more than anything in the '80s did. The talent here is pretty incredible.

In December 2003 I went to Manchester England to visit friends and enjoy the holiday atmosphere. While there, I saw the film “Love, Actually”, heard the Cheeky Girls for the first time, and in a minivan en-route to a stately manor heard “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” on the radio. I wondered if this was some 1970s British glam rock band I’d never heard of when one of the locals asked what I thought of the song. I loved it and was absolutely gobsmacked when informed this was a new release vying for the top of the Christmas charts. Returning to downtown Manchester I picked up Permission To Land on CD and it became one of my favorite albums for a year or so. It sounded so different from everything else going on in music at the time. Unapologetically sex, drugs and rock and roll, it is hard to know whether to take this album seriously. Except the seriously great rock and roll performances and that incredible falsetto on the lead singer. Permission To Land provides good sex, drugs, hellhound and rock & roll coverage. And there’s ping pong, needlecraft, badminton, rowing and bridge club (which according to “Friday” are activities the cool kids in his school participated in). Just when you think this is a total joke some surprisingly tender ballads appear… only to dive into a catchy ditty extolling the virtues of heroin. This album is a fun throwback that blew me away in 2003 and transported me back a couple of decades. Today it again transported me back a couple of decades. I wonder where I’ll be when it pops up again in the 2040s?

Definitely a throwback to the first couple years of college.

In a college drawing 101 class we would play CDs while we drew. Usually the teacher's, sometimes student contributions. 'I believe in a thing called love' played on a student mix-CD, and after it ended a taciturn latino kid who always wore a dodgers cap, and who was rumored to be in a cult-like church walked across the whole large ass studio, not saying a word as we all watched, also silent, and hit repeat on the boombox. We all (fairly diverse crowd of yung'ns, first generation hippie teacher, architecture and other serious students who had to be there, arty weird kids, and misfits like me taking it for fun) immediately knew and acknowledged that this was the only correct course in that moment. What a song. These boys (like the oft-maligned kid rock in his salad days) understand rock and roll. Catchy melody, energy, and singing that is fun to sing along with. The guitar is neither innovative nor virtuosic, but they sell it (solos get objectively better if you call them, and have a guitar drop into your hands in the video). The falsetto is ridiculous but perfect. I'd heard and like some of the other songs, and really the entire album catches the right balance of perfectly dumb and perfectly fun. Guitar!

ALL KILLER NO FILLER

Purely for fun entertainment and glimmers of happiness. In surprised how good they are. Dedication to the artform. Didn't think I'd give a 5 to a Glam Rock Band.! .... but the, umm, respectful tone of consent (cover art), combined with hilariously fun music and swell screaming which had all the feel good stuff happening - these guys nailed Glam better than they did it first time around. Very happy surprise. I only knew one song beforehand. ...

Every song is different, one of my all time favorites

Justin Hawkins is fantastic and this album is just pure rock fun. Great stuff.

Resisted this for months before finally submitting after the release of Love is only a feeling. some really genuine great songs on the album with a bit of cheese. good vocals, good guitars. and has a song on it shouting YOU CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNT. what's not to like

honestly it's more like a 4 but the commitment to the bit makes it a 5