Sep. 12, 2012 - Issue #882: Down On The Farm
Hot Cakes
The Darkness {recordings_bands_mg} Hot Cakes {/recordings_bands_mg}
EMI,
2
To be fair, listing its traits on paper makes the Darkness seem like potentially more effective of an idea and band than even in its early 2000s heyday. A throwback glam band with a modern, dry sense of irony, capable of giving a knowing wink to classic rock's more excessive grandeurs—double-necked guitars, tight catsuits, a testicle-retracting falsetto—while embracing them seems exactly the sort of thing that can fly far in today's endlessly referential culture.The Spinal Tap-level of ridiculousness of Hot Cakes' cover, featuring three bikini-clad babes posing on pancakes, covered in syrup, suggests nothing to the contrary. But esthetic and idea aside, when it comes down to the music itself, the sum of Hot Cakes' parts is simply that: its parts. Nothing new, or even all that interesting gets done with Justin Hawkins' impressive vocal range, or with the band's classic rock setup and skill. They're all decent enough musicians to sell the style, sure, but there really isn't much to sell in a time when most of the classic bands they're aping are out doing their own nostalgia-laced tours.
An AC/DC / Freddy Mercury pileup clogs opener "Every Inch of You." "Keep Me Hanging On" rides the Queen side of that divide, but without Brian May's guitar wizardry. "She's Just a Girl, Eddie" finds a fun rhythm and coasts through lamenting a pal's breakup. There's a curious rawkous cover of Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" That heads toward Ozzy territory, and is sort of curious for that reason alone. But it still remains that Hot Cakes is, for all intents and purposes, Spinal Tap karaoke. It's still fun to an extent, but the band seems less in on the joke than ever. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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