They may hail from Lowestoft, but The Darkness are Britain's most triumphantly OTT rock band. The four-piece—who have in Justin Hawkins a falsetto-favouring frontman of awesome capability—tap into a genre so time-honoured it's positively Pleistocene and, although their debut is an unashamed composite of AC/DC, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Thin Lizzy, Kiss and Cheap Trick, it's no less effective for that. The Darkness are genuinely in thrall to the power of stadium rock in all its bombastic, unreconstructed glory, and that they recreate it without recourse to irony is a testament to their talent. Silly? Quite possibly, but staggeringly skillful, and a strangely touching expression of unbridled joy.

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