The Darkness: Dreams on Toast overview – ‘rock music to make you smile’ | Music | Entertainment | EUROtoday

The Darkness: Dreams On Toast

It have to be a continuing frustration for musical snobs that The Darkness make the music of the 70s and 80s sound so recent and alive. Twenty-two years on from their sensible Permission To Land debut, the Lowestoft rockers are again and firing on all cylinders – a few of them sudden. Their eighth studio album packs in heavy rock, boogie, echoes of Freddie Mercury pomp, gleefully infectious tunes, and guileless nation, all delivered with an elephant-sized sense of enjoyable. They kick off with the fierce however playful Rock And Roll Party Cowboy, an exuberant scorcher which rocks like AC/DC and mocks, tongue in cheek, the arduous rock way of life. ‘I’m a rock and roll occasion cowboy/And I ain’t gonna learn no Tolstoy,” Justin Hawkins sings on the refrain. Lead guitar soars and squawks with joyous abandon.

I Hate Myself is an much more addictive break-up track performed as a flat-out, super-charged glam rock boogie – assume The Sweet meets Queen with loads of falsetto and an prompt earworm refrain. Lovers of hard-rockin’ bangers will enjoy tracks like Mortal Dread and Walking Through Fire, however extra intriguing are the songs you don’t anticipate. Hot On My Tail is the form of nation the Beatles used to do, and so they return to Nashville on the catchily playful Cold Hearted Woman, which swings together with a waltz really feel embellished with fiddles.

Don’t Need The Sunshine begins like a relaxed rock ballad then builds up with sweeping, Mercury-style vocals. The toe-tapping Longest Kiss has a poppy ELO vibe, after which they hit us with the pile-driving The Battle For Gadget Land. They finish with Weekend In Rome, a gradual lush quantity which feels just like the closing overture of a film. It’s a terrific album. Music to make you smile.

Buster Shuffle: Together

Madness and Chas & Dave mix in Buster Shuffle. Songs like I Don’t Mind What I See, powered by punk vitality, have been made for boisterous singalongs in packed pubs. You can nearly scent the spilt beer. There’s a Rancid echo on the ska-punk Shows How Little You Know, whereas bouncy Masterplan finds the Londoners dreaming of getting cash and transferring to Spain. Not too quickly please.

Bryan Ferry & Amelia Barratt: Loose Talk

Roxy Music star Bryan’s unheard demos from the 70s on have been re-recorded and enhanced with unemotional narration from efficiency artist Amelia because the duo try to “blur the lines between music and art”. The outcomes are blended, however Roxy followers will probably be intrigued. The greatest tracks are brooding, ominous or trippy; others sound like a soundtrack ready to occur.

Ebba Asman: When You Know

The Swedish trombonist creates a mix of atmospheric jazz and lugubrious neo-soul on her third album as Ebba, 26, expands her musical imaginative and prescient. You hear her late-night membership roots on tracks like No Answer whereas songs such because the RnB-fuelled Lately create a dreamy avant-garde soundscape. If this album have been any smokier it will set off alarms.