The Darkness: Motorheart review – Still outrageously over the top

In 2003, The Darkness seemed to explode out of nowhere with a ridiculous and ubiquitous slice of glam pop entitled I Believe in a Thing Called Love. This delightfully riotous song was narrowly beaten to the UK number one slot by Where is the Love? by Black Eyed Peas.

On the strength of the subsequent album, Permission to Land, the Lowestoft quartet with a penchant for falsettos, cat suits and generally acting the maggot briefly became the biggest rock band in the world. They even headlined Oxegen in 2004 after David Bowie was forced to pull out.

In 2021, The Darkness return with their seventh studio. Suffice to say that they don’t unveil any new direction. Motorheart blasts out of the traps with the absolutely ridiculous rather than the sublime on Welcome tae Glasgae.

It’s an outrageously over the top and preposterous opening salvo (and that’s just the hammy take on a Scottish accent) but it’s a load of fun. Motorheart follows suit in a similarly excessive vein of amps turned up to 11 and Justin Hawkins’s unmistakable squawk.

The Darkness have been cruelly dismissed as a one-hit wonder joke band. While their appeal has admittedly got much more selective, which is evident in their booking for the Olympia and Belfast’s Limelight next February rather than the 3 or SSE arenas, Motorheart proves they’re still well able to rock, trudging into the pandemic era spreading their unquenchable and most welcome sense of fun.