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Aug 29, 2012Hot Cakes is definitely worthy of throwing more than a few devil horns the band's way.
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Aug 29, 2012Even with its generous supply of candy-coated riffs and easy-flowing melodies, Hot Cakes still goes down like lukewarm Eggo waffles: comfort-food familiar, but sapped of the frisson that made The Darkness special.
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Aug 29, 2012Despite whatever success they may have had with their debut, The Darkness' return clearly signifies that the major problems underlying their style have come to the forefront, leaving the cheeky humor and catchy riffs that we all liked not too long ago in the dust.
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UncutAug 30, 2012Hot Cakes adds little to their hybrid Queen, AC/DC, Van Halen and Gun N' Roses, but their air-punching thrills of "Forbidden Love" and "Concrete" are undeniable. [Sep 2012, p.74]
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MojoAug 30, 2012Frenetic take on Radiohead's Street Spirit aside, the tightly arranged songs here are pleasingly Queen, AC/DC, Lizzy and Leppard-aware. [Sep 2012, p.86]
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Q MagazineAug 30, 2012For the most part Hot Cakes leaves you with the sense that The Darkness' reinvigoration will delight those longing for rock to rediscover the fun button. [Sep 2012, p.106]
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Aug 29, 2012A fun comeback album filled with screeching and penis jokes.
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Aug 29, 2012Hot Cakes stays amusing, mixing beer-barrel chuggers with proud schlock ballads.
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Aug 29, 2012They've once again made a brilliantly over the top record.
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Aug 29, 2012Eschewing the bells, whistles and sequinned kitchen sinks of their second album, One Way Ticket, in favour of an approach that shows off their credentials as a first-rate out-and-out rock band, Hot Cakes bulges with infectious melodies, blazing leads and strident riffing, Justin Hawkins' unmistakable falsetto adding pathos and silliness in equal measure.
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Aug 29, 2012Hot Cakes contains vestiges of the brilliance that once helped make The Darkness a massive cultural force (at least in the UK). But too many of its songs feel like toss-offs and half-formed ideas.
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Aug 29, 2012There's nothing that really stands out as a hit on here, nothing to get the crowds in Whitesnake t-shirts (ironic or otherwise) moshing in the manner of Permission to Land's hits.
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Aug 29, 2012With Hot Cakes-the group's third album, and first since reforming last year-the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.
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Aug 29, 201211 killer-no-filler songs that steer through the '70s and early-'80s and veer from fist-pumping anthems to mid-tempo good-time rock, all with an ear for a killer pop hook.
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Aug 29, 2012And even these songs ["Nothing's Gonna Stop Us", "Everybody Have a Good Time"] fail to capture the raw energy of Permission To Land or the orchestral pomposity of One Way Ticket, instead falling limp between the two.
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Alternative PressAug 29, 2012Hot Cakes, the band's surprisingly strong third album, certainly reaffirms their glammy cred. [Sep 2012, p.88]
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Aug 29, 2012An 11-track galumph through feelgood rockularisms.
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MagnetAug 29, 2012Hot Cakes isn't really trying to be funny so much as just plain fun. And it is. [No.90, p.55]
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Aug 29, 2012Hot Cakes [is] proof if it were needed that there's plenty of life in the old dog yet - and that dog still don't give a f***.
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Aug 29, 2012If the novelty had already worn off by the time of their second album in 2005, this comeback effort tests the patience beyond breaking point.
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Kerrang!Sep 4, 2012Hot Cakes may tail off a bit, but, ultimately, it proves as capable of suspending your belief and blowing your mind as any blockbuster. [18 Aug 2012, p.52]
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Aug 29, 2012Light on laughs and riffage, the title/cover entendre makes it hard to tell if it is supposed to be so terrible or a joke about being so terrible... But the long-available cover of Radiohead's "Street Spirit" is inspired, and first single "Nothin's Gonna Stop Us" grafts one candy rope hook after another into one of the year's finest melodies.
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Aug 29, 2012Hot Cakes is a rock-solid home win from the band who still do feelgood hard rock better than anyone alive.
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Aug 29, 2012A riot of dumbness, 'Hot Cakes' is predictably brash and Queen-like.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 12
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Mixed: 4 out of 12
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Negative: 1 out of 12
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Feb 5, 2023
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Jan 24, 2014