Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Easter Is Cancelled, but the sweet delivery of the unexpected gift stays true in the heart at any time of the year.

There is always a surprise which comes from a band that you may well believe you know well but which at some time or another pull the exceptional out of the bag and give the audience the belief that they have heard the defining moment of the group’s career. Such a moment should not be unexpected, but it should be treated with reverence, with the kind of respect deserving one who has sensationally delivered above and beyond a piece of art which smiles.

Art should dig deep into the fan’s psyche, or it should garner the kind of joy to which you cannot but help linger in its presence long after the bells chime out suggesting it is time to move on to another detailed sense of imaginative decorated prose or tuneful expression; for The Darkness, Easter Is Cancelled combines both these determined aspects, a representation of the highly sought after rock sound but immersed in its own mood swing, a playful but also solemn affair which commands attention.

From the initial sublime moments that echo industrially from the album’s opener, Rock and Roll Deserves to Die and on through tracks such as How Can I Lose Your Love, Heart Explodes, In Another Life, Choke On It and the final intricate display that arrives in the album’s finale, We Are The Guitar Men, Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain and Rufus Taylor plough a furrow that you cannot but help sow your own seeds of satisfaction within.

Easter may well be cancelled, the occasion full of pomp and ceremony is a reflection of the way that some aspects of the Rock genre has become too uptight in its own regard for self-importance, and whilst it can be said that the serious message that some espouse in their lyrics provides a much needed antidote to the squashed feel of over-hyped pop, they too have forgotten it seems to have fun; an accusation that cannot be levelled at The Darkness. Pomp certainly, but with pleasure always to be felt, to be needed lest we find ourselves in a world that is boring, staid and unadventurous.

Easter Is Cancelled sees The Darkness at the top of their game, and it shows with wild and wicked delight.

Ian D. Hall