Can't explain all the feelings that you're making me feel

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts.

12/10/03 : Permission To Land - The Darkness

I didn't mind "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" but I considered the whole Darkness phenomenon as a bit of a joke so there was no danger of me listening to the album. However, there were plenty of people that took it all very seriously and it did very well for itself.

Well, "a bit of a joke" feels a bit harsh - it sounds much better if you describe them as a "homm-arge". It's not something I loved (particularly the falsetto), but they're taking it seriously and there's a reasonable amount of skill and variety involved. Would I go and see them live? No, I wouldn't - but I'm happy enough that plenty of people wanted to and I bet they loved it.

We're at #3 in the charts this week on their fourteenth week of a 50 week run, with it having spent four weeks at #1 (its 8th-11th weeks) - it also spent one week in the charts in '23, which I suspect was down to a vinyl reissue. The rest of the top five this week were Dido, a Robbie Williams live album, an Elvis Presley best-of (a new entry) and an R Kelly best-of (I suspect that doesn't get too many listens these days) and the next highest new entry was Michael Bublé (#6). 

Wikipedia tells us this is their debut album. In the early days, they were very popular live, but no-one was interested in signing them because they were viewed as uncool, or maybe even not real - but in the end they went with Atlantic and I think it's fair to say it worked out OK for everyone. I mean,  who isn't going to be excited about a #1 album that specifically references the road between Norwich and Great Yarmouth? The critics were very nice about it, but Classic Rock hit the nail on the head for me with "Permission to Land will never be the album that The Darkness think it is but, taken in the spirit that it is offered, it's certainly more fun than Use Your Illusion". It also did well at the awards, winning Kerrang!'s Best Rock Album and the BRIT Best British Album. Commercially, it did way better elsewhere than I was expecting - #2 in Ireland, #8 in Sweden, #10 in Canade and even #36 in the US. I was also somewhat surprised to see they're still going with their next album coming out in March.

"Customers also listened to" Tenacious D, Fountains Of Wayne, The Ghost Of A Thousand and Jet - a list I know less about as it progresses. This isn't for me, but having listened to it, I don't regret doing so and feel much more positively disposed to it than I did previously.

05/10/03 - Tolerable but pointless
19/10/03 - Doesn't hit the spot for me