Tuesday Top Ten: Favorite Songs by The Darkness by Album

Tomorrow night, I will have the pleasure of seeing two amazing live bands -- The Darkness and Diarrhea Planet -- at the Park West here in Chicago.  It's been a few years since I've seen Diarrhea Planet, but I was pumped when I saw that they would be opening for The Darkness on this tour.  Of course, I've seen The Darkness multiple times, and the last two times, I've caught a guitar pick and bass pick, respectively.  All that's left is a drum stick and a unitard.

For most people, if they know only one Darkness song, it's "I Believe In a Thing Called Love" -- which is a fantastic song.  But did you know that the band has five full-length albums?  I did.  Because I own all of them.  And I love them.  All of them.

To allow you to perhaps discover some real rock and roll made by a current band, I am going to give you my favorite song off of each album, along with my five other favorite songs by the band, regardless of album.  Here you go:

Favorite Song by Album (in chronological order)
1.  "I Believe In a Thing Called Love" (Permission to Land, 2003)
This is the one that started it all, and it's still my favorite song by the band.  At a time when rock was either nu metal/post-grunge or being stripped down to garage rock, this song was an outlier -- pure glam joy.  It might be the best rock and roll song of the 2000s.

2.  "Knockers" (One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back, 2005)
The band's second album kept the bombast going.  There are a lot of great songs off of One Way Ticket, but "Knockers" is my favorite.  It's got a groove, and it's catchy as hell, with a slide guitar kind of hanging out in the background.  And then there's that chorus, with Justin Hawkins's trademark falsetto complimenting a lucky lady about what she's done with her hair.

3.  "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (Hot Cakes, 2012)
The band broke up after One Way Ticket due to Justin's substance abuse issues, but after he got clean and was comfortable enough with his own sobriety to put himself back in the rock and roll lifestyle, the band reunited after about seven years away.  They released Hot Cakes in 2012, picking up right where they left off, with ballsy, glammy rock that you want to sing along to.  "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" off Hot Cakes is a hard-hitting wailer with a badass thrashy intro. 

4.  "Open Fire" (Last Of Our Kind, 2015)
2015's Last Of Our Kind is another great set of rock and roll songs. Justin Hawkins has mention his love of The Cult, and it's hard not to notice the influence of The Cult in the opening riff to "Open Fire."  The song is a solid rocker, and Justin Hawkins's voice is different on this one (other than the occasional falsetto wail).

5.  "Southern Trains" (Pinewood Smile, 2017)
While the song "Solid Gold" has the best chorus on the album -- "We're never gonna stop / Shitting out solid gold -- I have to go with "Southern Trains" as my favorite song off of Pinewood Smile.  It's a tongue-in-cheek song about how shitty some train lines are, and it manages to rock harder than pretty much anything that's been on the radio in the last five years.  That guitar solo is ridiculous -- though not as ridiculous as the video.

Five Other Favorite Songs (in chronological order)
6.  "Get Your Hands Off Of My Woman" (Permission to Land, 2003)
"Get your hands off of my woman, motherfucker."  A blunt, but effective, chorus if I've ever heard one. Note that the chorus in the video has been edited.

7.  "Growing On Me" (Permission to Land, 2003)
When you listen to the lyrics of this song, it sounds like a sweet love song about falling in love.  It's actually about genital warts, which makes it more brilliant, in my mind.

8.  "One Way Ticket" (One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back, 2005)
It was a close race between this and "Knockers" for my favorite song off of the second album.  This song will always have a place in my heart because it was the first song the band played when I saw them at Metro in 2012 on their first tour of the States since reuniting.  The entire audience was bouncing up and down in excitement and singing along.  It was one of the happiest concert memories I've ever had, which is saying a lot.

9.  "With A Woman" (Hot Cakes, 2012)
A great, raunchy riff leads into another catchy hard rock song with some great falsettos.

10.  "Mudslide" (Last Of Our Kind, 2015)
This has a great intro and riff, and just plain rocks. It's about hating mudslides.