Darlington

Darlington: Euthanize MeEuthanize Me (2004)
Disaster Records

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

Contributed by: adamAdam
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on August 13th 2004In the past few months, Disaster has released both the Exploding Fuck Dolls retrospective and Darlington's new record Euthanize Me, effectively unearthing the father and giving birth to the son at the same time: Christy Darlington's latest sound bears more than a striking resemblance to a young Duan.

In the past few months, Disaster has released both the Exploding Fuck Dolls retrospective and Darlington's new record Euthanize Me, effectively unearthing the father and giving birth to the son at the same time: Christy Darlington's latest sound bears more than a striking resemblance to a young Duane Peters and the Fuck Dolls in particular. So like that comparison implies, this is snotty, attitude driven punk rock with more than a few skateboarding anthems. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, but despite Darlington's apparent distain for the newer variants of the genre, the band manages to avoid the typical "street punk" limitations with a healthy combination of youthful vigour and a love of good pop song writing.

The sequencing on the album might deceive those who don't venture past the first few tracks, because while the record leads off with speedy buzzsaw guitars and a middle finger held straight out of the late 70s, Darlington's skill as a pop songwriter really emerges later on the slower material like "Oxygen" and "Euthanise Me." There's a rough-hewn charm to these tracks, an awkward outcast feel borrowed with respect from Mr. Costello that manifests itself all over the album. The Spanish language "Como De Flor" is a fun bit of bubblegum pop with a driving backbeat. It's followed by the blazing "Tarantula," a purely instrumental piece that rocks along for no longer than a minute and a half of authentic sounding 80s style hardcore, only to lead into another cut of sweet pop-punk. The record changes gears more than a few times and it gives the album life and enough dynamics to keep it from ever falling into a pattern.

Christy's liner notes indicate that this 12 track album was recorded in a single day with few takes. That's hardly boasting as it's flaws are left for all to see, but the lack of polish works well. Darlington's voice has a realistic high range that he employs quite liberally, one can envision some hack producer salivating at the thought of feeding it through the autotuner a few times to achieve that mainstream pop wine. Since that potential is there, the fact that the record leaves all the rough edges and loud guitars in, even on love songs like "Beautiful," is a huge bonus. If anything Darlington harkens back to what authentic pop-punk could and should sound like.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

i'm on pills http://www.casino-los-angeles.com/doliyoli/casino-directory-2005. html

Anonymous (August 16, 2004)

This cd fucking rocks so hard. I dance around to this butt naked when I'm home alone - sometimes I dry hump the couch or slap my nutz against the TV

Anonymous (August 16, 2004)

that's a perfect title for this pile. they oughta be put to sleep, and put us out of our misery.

MrLuke (August 15, 2004)

I'd rather listen to the Gamits. Fuck these guys. Their music sucks and they are real pricks. These guys make Ben Weasel look like the nicest guy on earth.

Anonymous (August 14, 2004)

I haven't heard this cd, but the Louder Than Morrissey cd (End Records version) has some good extra stuff on it, and one of the funniest reading thanks sections ever (iTunes sells the interview...which is cool and weird). There's this 20 minute long interview that had me laughing all the way through it...i'm not sure if the radio station knew what they were getting into. The enhanced cd song it's bad either...it's kinda surfy.

Anonymous (August 14, 2004)

Yeah, Christy cleaned up nothing. In the liner notes for "Louder Than Morrissey" he thanks Jesus Christ for salvation blah blah blah, but if you can't see his tounge firmly in cheek, well, you're not so bright.

Darlington is brilliant.

Anchors (August 14, 2004)

Does this band come with the authentic Jack Kevorkian seal of approval?

Anonymous (August 14, 2004)

im seein them in flint on the 27th.

Anonymous (August 14, 2004)

wonderful...

now only if they would tour....

seriously, i didn't even know hte louder than.. cd had come out until i saw it while in lousiville for krazyfest but they have had a fairly proflific career in pop punk with a ton of albums out over the past 5 years or so. i'd check out girltreversy(?) if you are interested. good stuff though if for the song structure more than anything. the songs are very formulatic

adam (August 13, 2004)

To the guy below: Sorry I'm not a huge Darlington historian so I can't really compare it to his back catalogue. However if you say he was into Jesus and cleared up swearing in his lyrics, I can tell you that this is quite a vulgar record at times, so that phase is probably passed.

-adam

Anonymous (August 13, 2004)

i just posted below, fuck it i just ordered it, hopefully its good, christy was getting al ittle into jesus as the last record i bought and after the huntingtons split he had totally cleaned the swearing out of his stuff. still names himself a girls name though... weirdo

Anonymous (August 13, 2004)

you probably should have compared it to some of thier 70 earlier releases or even the older mess recordings. now i don't know what to expect other than it sounds like some duane peters crap that i've never heard. way to fuck up a review that might have been good

Anonymous (August 13, 2004)

fuck this band

mykindofmurder (August 13, 2004)

first.