The Darkness focus back on their roots to deliver modern rock anthems on Pinewood Smile

Fourteen years after the release of their quadruple-platinum debut album, Permission to Land, which catapulted The Darkness into international adoration, the band has returned to their beloved original sound in their fifth album, Pinewood Smile, but with a modern edge.

Currently, it stands at number eight in the UK album charts, alongside Marilyn Manson, a-ha and the Foo Fighters – it seems there is a current taste for more familiar, established artists in the commercial market. Opinions of fans on social media, however, appear to be divided; for some, the rock just isn’t hard enough. Partly, this can be put down to the two new influences in the band: producer Adrian Bushby, who has worked with the Foo Fighters and Muse and has clearly pushed the band’s boundaries to modernise, as well as Rufus Tiger Taylor, the band’s newest drummer, whose youthful energy threads throughout Pinewood, giving it a new kind of enthusiasm.

Despite these new additions, the core of what makes The Darkness a unique rock band is as strong as ever – the album is packed with catchy riffs and witty lyrics in every song. Their trademark eccentric and campy style is in full force; some tracks might seem a tad ridiculous (‘Buccaneers of Hispaniola’ is about pirates), but The Darkness has never worried about excess. This album is pure fun.

The opening bars of the album, in the track ‘All the Pretty Girls’, build up to a fiery crescendo immediately recognisable as The Darkness sound, a strong blend of guitar, bass and drums accompanied by lead singer Justin Hawkins’ falsetto howl. The song establishes an autobiographical thread that crops up a few times in Pinewood. “All the pretty girls like me for who I am” is as much a comment on fame as it is entertainingly self-assured, which is echoed in ‘Solid Gold’ to the extreme. The band chants that they’re “never gonna stop shitting out solid gold”, lambasting the mainstream industry and asserting their status as rock legends, in a commanding, punchy anthem which seems influenced by Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’, but even more playfully narcissistic.

Pinewood Smile also flirts with a range of generic styles, resulting in several experiments such as the indignant and relatable protest track ‘Southern Trains’, based on the band’s personal vendetta against the rail system (and one company in particular). The punky fast tempo supporting their lamentations of “not getting anywhere” mimics political bands such as The Clash, but is resoundingly more playful, evidenced by their ‘unofficial’ video for the song, made entirely using Snapchat filters.

The attempt to modernise in Pinewood is a great start for the band to rediscover their magic after their 2006 hiatus and change in line-up

The band also include slower-tempo tracks resembling power ballads, such as the powerful ‘Why Don’t the Beautiful Cry?’ which laments that we “are all bubble and squeak in the frying-pan of life”. The final track ‘Stampede of Love’, a country-tinged love letter to a larger lady, describes her as a “perfect sphere”, yet ends with dark humour: “across the sand on a donkey ride, great fun till the donkey died”.

Ultimately, The Darkness show in this album their inherent understanding of rock’n’roll by never taking themselves too seriously, and create catchy upbeat songs which appeal to the modern market as well as going back to what works best. The attempt to modernise in Pinewood is a great start for the band to rediscover their magic after their 2006 hiatus and change in line-up. However, there still remains boundaries to push, if they want to ever live back up to the Permission days.