Please let “Last Of Our Kind” be the last of its kind

The Darkness is a talented English glam rock band who can be easily identified by lead singer Justin Hawkins’ operatic vocals. They released their fourth studio album, “Last Of Our Kind,” on May 26, 2015 and, unfortunately, it was nowhere near as impressive as I expected it to be.

I first fell in love with The Darkness after hearing their most popular song “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” I loved the classic-rock vibe they gave off, hearing influences from AC/DC, Queen, and Def Leppard. Every song on their 2003 album “Permission to Land” was different and unique; I listened to it over and over without getting bored.

“Last Of Our Kind” is not drastically different from the band’s past releases. Nobody can complain that “they changed” or “sold out”, as fans often like to proclaim when their favorite band releases a new album. It still sounds like the same old band. Just worse.

“The Darkness is a really cool band because their lead singer’s voice is so different. I normally love the 80’s sound that they have, but on this album, it just didn’t really work. It sort of reminded me of the bad side of 80’s music that we all just want to forget about,” said junior Raymond Garcia.

The first song on the album, “Barbarian,” is actually not bad at all. In fact, I listened to it a few times before moving on because I liked it so much. The rest of the songs, however, did not have the same affect.

Lazy – that is the best way to describe the album. The songs are fun; they will make you want to dance around, head bang, and mosh, but there is no real substance to any of them. My mom described it as “pop metal.”

One of the more popular songs is called “Open Fire.” There is nothing to complain about, really. Tt is not a horrible song; it is just very bleh. There is nothing significantly good about it: the guitar solos are bland and the vocals sound like every other song by The Darkness.

All in all, listening to this album caused me to lose some respect for The Darkness. I would have honestly expected “Last Of Our Kind” to be much better. Instead, it just served to disappoint me.

After listening to the album in its entirety, I put on “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” just for the hell of it. Right from the opening riff, I was instantly reminded of how good they are. Or rather, were.

I am beginning to think The Darkness may be reaching their end. But hey, you never know, their next release may be a gem. They are certainly capable of creating quality music, even if this album was a dud.

What did you think of “Last Of Our Kind?”