The Darkness is one of those bands that doesn't have many people who are indifferent to them. Storming out of England with their hit single, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love", the band's fun blend of retro-rock sensibilities and wailing falsetto shrieks struck a chord with rock fans who were sick of the gloomy and monotonous bands filling the airwaves. Straddling the line between serious musicians and joke band, they were able to ride their success to become the surprise best seller of the year. Fast forward two years later, and the band is back, trying to recapture the sound that made them karaoke favorites.

"One Way Ticket" is graced with a contradictory joke as a title, but that humor is lacking from the songs that are contained within the criminally short record. For taking time between their albums, rather than pushing one out to build on their momentum, much more was expected of their sophomore album than they want to admit. That pressure includes a desire for the band to give more than the 35 minutes of music that is included here. While it is a good idea not to pad an album full of filler, there is a point in which listeners can't help but feel that they're getting ripped off. Depending on who you are, you might feel that's the case with this one.

"One Way Ticket" opens the album with a burst of rock fury meant to recall the band's first single, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love". The problem is that the latter was a much stronger song, and didn't fall apart due to self-parody. "One Way Ticket" suffers by trying to stuff too many rock clichés (a sitar solo and a cowbell among others) into one song. Individually, all the elements of a good time rock parody band are present, but the band feels the need to pump all of them into their first single, most likely assuming that no one is going to actually listen to the album tracks more than once. The song itself is sufficient as a single, but lacks the guilty pleasure of the band's breakthrough hit, if for nothing else that the monotonous chorus, which features the title repeated ad nauseum.

Fortunately, the band is able to recover from the slight misstep that the opening number is. Rock numbers like "Knockers" and "Is It Just Me" move with the same kind of swagger as the best tracks from their debut, albeit with a more professional flair. The screaming falsetto wails that powered the debut are tempered here, being used only for emphasis, and are not allowed to carry the songs, which takes away a large bit of the mystique that the band had built. Justin Hawkins' voice is nothing special in the rock realm, and it's only the falsettos that set him and the band apart from the others trying to revive the 70's and 80's glam movement.

The requisite ballad, "Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time" is a savvy slice of acoustic guitar led sing-a-long that outdoes the psuedo-ballads from the debut. Perhaps buying into the cliché of ballads bringing more of a female audience to concerts, the ballad serves it's purpose better than anything else they've yet put to an album.

Not everything works for the band on this outing. The closing cut, "Blind Man" never goes anywhere, and seems more of an excuse to use strings than a song. Likewise, the kitsch of the band doesn't carry over as well this time around, as the band seems to be taking themselves far too seriously. It was the tongue in cheek nature of the debut that made the over the top songs work, and that is sorely lacking in this album. The band excels at the ridiculous, and they never allow themselves to go far enough to reach that sublime level of absurdity. Instead, they fill the role of nostalgia worshippers, of which there are countless.

The bottom line with this album is that it's not the band's debut. If this were the first we've heard from the band, they would be much better accepted by the mainstream press and fans. There's less tongue in cheek humor, less over the top ridiculous musical moments, and the songs are better constructed than their predecessors. The problem, however, is that for all of the positives that this album has going for it, the sense of fun and danger that the debut had is lacking in every aspect. The vocals are more controlled and unemotive, the guitars are pushed towards the background and never allowed to carry a song with a riff or a solo the way that their heroes would have done (aside from the album highlight, "Bald"), and the melodies don't stand out nearly as much as they should. This is solid work by the band, but for the length of the album, they should be able to deliver more quality material than they do.

Rating: 84/100