11 Songs: The Darkness

Time for another 11 songs. The best? My favorites? Some are here. It's more like . . . the first 11 songs I felt I needed to include on this list. Why 11 songs? If you don't know why "this one goes to eleven" spells rock and roll, I can't explain it.

1) Barbarian. Last year I got a hankering to hear The Darkness again, and found this track off their brand-new album. It totally blew me away. I had put it on and figured, they might be comparable to their original stuff. No, it was better. And I'd missed a progression of great music in between. I quickly snapped it up, and went to see them live.

2) One Way Ticket to Hell (And Back). Needs more cowbell, which is why fans bring their own to the show. Perfectly, awesomely hyper-smart lyrics about cocaine with a great smart-stupid refrain.

3) Is It Just Me? Is it just me or am I all on my own again? Yes. Very AC/DC riff here, too.

4) I Believe In a Thing Called Love. This is the first song by The Darkness that I heard. At the time I liked this woman, I can't recall her name offhand - just her face, that probably doesn't help - and she also liked The Darkness. That didn't go anywhere, but my interest in this band sure did.

Best YouTube comment on this video? "Best Star Trek episode ever." Might be.

5) Girlfriend. This is extremely catchy, fun to sing along to, and has funny lyrics. Plus, the video. Yeah. You can't unwatch it, but you can re-watch it.

6) Open Fire. This is pretty close to being to the best song I ever heard by The Cult. It's like they distilled The Cult into The Darkness and did both. Remember that line in Almost Famous about "incendiary" guitar? This is it.

7) Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End). The link tells it all. I actually play this a lot around Christmas.

8) Love on the Rocks (With No Ice). I didn't really love this song until I saw them live - and they did a smoking version of it with Justin Hawkins being carried around the crowd. Great show, great song.

9) Givin' Up. Another drug related song, like One Way Ticket. Singalong refrain.

10) Every Inch Of You. Got to give it up for a mentioned of TDK 90 cassettes. That's how I listened to so, so many bands.

11) Hammer and Tongs. Just because I can't ever skip over this song, no matter what. I love the Georgia Satellites feel it has.

And if I can close this out with a recommendation - see these guys live at least once. They're one of the best live bands I've ever seen.*



* Their drummer when I went was Rufus Taylor, which I'm counting as a half-credit towards seeing Queen.