Thursday, December 11, 2003
Gimmie a D! Gimmie an Iabolocal!
Right, The Darkness' Christmas single is about to be released, so lets get the things we actually like about it out of the way first:-
The main problem is this; while The Darkness are clearly having fun and playing with an affectionate homage to a maligned genre of music, they always played it straight. I Believe in a Thing Called Love is a great pop song, but wouldn't have worked in any sort of way if the listener thought for a second that this was some sort of joke. They worked because they played it as serious as it was possible to do when you're singling falsetto in a lycra catsuit. However with this single they're not only parodying the music they claim to love, but they've become a parody of themselves. It's so piss-poor it's makes us entertain the belief that they found a sketch that was written for Alistair McGowan's Big Impression and just decided to use that instead, rather than go through the hassle of actually writing something half decent themselves.
Ah well, we had once claimed that this would be their last single anyway as there's no way that their concept could sustain a second album - we feel we've been proved right by this state of affairs. We're going off now to listen to Fountains of Wayne doing I Want An Alien For Christmas, a song that proves it is possible to do a new Christmas song and do it well.
Oh, and Avid Merrion's effort is pish as well, but at least he admits it's a joke.
- The "Ennnnnnnd" that links the verse into the chorus
The main problem is this; while The Darkness are clearly having fun and playing with an affectionate homage to a maligned genre of music, they always played it straight. I Believe in a Thing Called Love is a great pop song, but wouldn't have worked in any sort of way if the listener thought for a second that this was some sort of joke. They worked because they played it as serious as it was possible to do when you're singling falsetto in a lycra catsuit. However with this single they're not only parodying the music they claim to love, but they've become a parody of themselves. It's so piss-poor it's makes us entertain the belief that they found a sketch that was written for Alistair McGowan's Big Impression and just decided to use that instead, rather than go through the hassle of actually writing something half decent themselves.
Ah well, we had once claimed that this would be their last single anyway as there's no way that their concept could sustain a second album - we feel we've been proved right by this state of affairs. We're going off now to listen to Fountains of Wayne doing I Want An Alien For Christmas, a song that proves it is possible to do a new Christmas song and do it well.
Oh, and Avid Merrion's effort is pish as well, but at least he admits it's a joke.
