Often when a band releases a successful debut album, capable of selling well and being appreciated by critics, it bears an important weight on its shoulders, namely to return to the spotlight with a second album capable of matching the success of its predecessor and satisfying its fans.
The Darkness however seem to have missed the mark with their new album "One Way Ticket to Hell... And Back", truly flat, with few ideas and a decidedly more "soft" sound. In fact, while their previous work "Permission to Land" could be defined as a truly good debut album, energetic and with sounds that recalled the good old days of seventies hard rock like AC/DC with a splash of Queen-like sounds, this second "effort" of theirs turns out to be a much calmer and mellower album than its predecessor. The sound of the guitars, in fact, loses much of its power in many songs and is instead overshadowed by the use of orchestral arrangements like piano or strings, which contribute to creating atmospheres much less "rocking" than those heard previously.
The album therefore presents few noteworthy episodes. It opens excellently with "One Way Ticket," with a riff that resembles AC/DC a lot and makes one hope for an energetic album with a distinctly hard rock style similar to its predecessor. This is also the first single from the album and it is, all in all, a nice song. However, already the following track "Knockers" turns out to be much more "polished" and boring and, although with the next "Is it just me" the album seems to get back on the right track, the following three songs, namely "Dinner Lady Arms", "Seemed like a good idea at the time" and "Hazel Eyes", turn out to be uninspired, flat, monotonous, and unfortunately far from the hard rock sound experimented with previously. Track number seven, "Bald", is instead the third and last really good episode of the album and perhaps even the most beautiful song among the ten, with a really pleasant riff and refrain and overall much more polished than the previous ones, which seem more like songs worthy of a B-side or useless fillers. The following song "Girlfriend" is a fast and anonymous track that leaves nothing to the listener and slides away without too much praise or faults. The penultimate track "English Country Garden" after just thirty seconds of listening leads to the boredom that now reigns supreme and the falsetto choruses in the refrain tire from the start. The album closes with the piano ballad "Blind man", which all in all is not bad and highlights the excellent voice of singer Dan Hawkins.
In conclusion, it can be said that "One Way Ticket to Hell... And Back" has only three really beautiful songs and a note can also be made about the solos, which are really not bad, and Dan Hawkins' vocal abilities, who nevertheless proves to be a really great singer. The rest is boring and unfortunately makes one think that Darkness are already finished. MTV now reigns supreme and it is, alas, increasingly difficult for a group to try to continue on their own path without being influenced by promises of success, promptly offered by the bastards who run that damned music channel! Let them all burn! Not to mention the record companies that now properly squeeze emerging bands to make money or create others at the drawing table. It takes willpower and one must keep in check the thirst for money to escape this vicious circle. So it seems that even Darkness, after this album that is so limp compared to its predecessor, have nothing more to say and that the future is even darker and overshadowed by the thirst for money. However, nothing can be said in advance, and we'll see with the next album. Hope is the last to die.
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