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10.0
45180
10.0 |
Independent on Sunday
A rock-solid home win from the band who still do feelgood hard rock better than anyone alive
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8.0
45199
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
They’ve retained that knack of making you feel like a 16-year-old boy
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8.0
45229
8.0 |
All Music
The beauty of the Darkness' approach is that their pop side and cock rock side pretty much come from the same inclination: get listeners moving
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8.0
45118
8.0 |
The Guardian
Custom-built for remorseless radio play and may just enable The Darkness to return to the arenas
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8.0
45146
8.0 |
Mojo
Re-boots the ebullient riffage and hooky, castrato-like histrionics that made their 2003 debut so welcome. Print edition only
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8.0
45147
8.0 |
Q
Leaves you with the sense that The Darkness' reinvigoration will delight those longing fr rock to discover the fun button. Print edition only
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8.0
45269
8.0 |
musicOMH
This is The Darkness back to the formula that made their first record fly off the shelves
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8.0
45301
8.0 |
State
They’re a glam/hair metal hybrid, peddling fun-time smut to fans of Dad-rock and doing it with whatever the rock equivalent of panache is, middle fingers aloft, tongues lodged in cheeks
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8.0
45461
8.0 |
The Quietus
If Permission to Land was full of chart-friendly anthems and One Way Ticket their coked-up homage to Queen, then Hot Cakes is a little older, a little wiser, drawing from a wider palette of influences that include AC/DC and Aerosmith
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7.0
45305
7.0 |
Paste Magazine
Their aspirations fall nothing short of being a huge arena act, which is almost refreshing. Most important, they follow rock and roll’s most sacred yet forgotten rule—that there are no rules
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7.0
45155
7.0 |
NME
The sort of bouncing AC/DC riffs that everyone thinks are ironic these days
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7.0
45217
7.0 |
Uncut
The air-punching thrills of "Forbidden Love" and "Concrete" are undeniable. Print edition only
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6.0
45170
6.0 |
Evening Standard
There’s a version of Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out) which isn’t quite the disaster it could have been. It’s a slightly better world now they’re back
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6.0
45124
6.0 |
The Irish Times
There’s enough here to satisfy diehards, but whether they will expand their fan base with this is debatable
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6.0
46174
6.0 |
Rolling Stone
Hot Cakes stays amusing, mixing beer-barrel chuggers with proud schlock ballads
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6.0
46307
6.0 |
Tone Deaf
All in all it’s a great comeback album for the UK quartet who are still keeping strong with their glam rock
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5.2
45115
5.2 |
Pitchfork
Despite the band's love of heavy metal histrionics, Hot Cakes furthers the notion that the Darkness are, in essence, a very slick power-pop band
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5.0
45159
5.0 |
The Fly
No, it won’t be remembered as a great rock ‘n’ roll comeback, but was that ever really the intention?
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5.0
45193
5.0 |
The Digital Fix
There's no denying that even after six years, their hardcore base of fans will lap this up, yet surely The Darkness' aspirations would - and arguably should - have been more expansive than that?
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4.0
45171
4.0 |
BBC
They rely too heavily on ready-made riffs, generic melodies and lyrical clichés
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4.0
45116
4.0 |
The Scotsman
They have nothing as gleeful and infectious as I Believe In A Thing Called Love in their armoury this time round, and the joke increasingly wears thin as the album proceeds
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4.0
45117
4.0 |
The Skinny
The Darkness once conquered charts and hearts by virtue of a razor-sharp pop nous and inherent sense of fun, but both assets have since waned
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4.0
45136
4.0 |
Drowned In Sound
I guess that these songs are deliberately generic, that it’s a whole genre of music that’s the butt of the joke here, but there’s nothing that really stands out as a hit on here
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4.0
45339
4.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
It would be nice to see them channel their travails into something that combines more grounded subject matter with their signature brand of nostalgic fun
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3.3
45245
3.3 |
A.V. Club
The laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating
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3.0
45381
3.0 |
PopMatters
Hot Cakes is a lot like the guy who comes back to your high school reunion still hoping that you’ll all laugh at the only good joke he ever told
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2.0
46254
2.0 |
God Is In The TV
The usual seventies throw back glam rock
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