40 seconds into opener ‘Every Inch Of You’, Justin Hawkins sums up this – and every other – Darkness release in 11 words. “Every man and woman and child wants to… SUCK MY COCK!” It’s an absurd, coffee-out-the- nostrils outburst that defines his band’s preposterousness nicely. A riot of dumbness, ‘Hot Cakes’ is predictably brash (‘Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us’ and ‘Everybody Have A Good Time’) and Queen-like (the ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’-esque harmonies of ‘Keep Me Hangin’ On’). No, it won’t be remembered as a great rock ‘n’ roll comeback, but was that ever really the intention?

Matt Glass