The Darkness
Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)
Do you remember The Darkness? Although short lived, they are
hard to forget; the ear-splittingly eccentric I Believe In A Thing Called Love is engrained in our collective
minds for some reason. Riding on the back of that fame, The Darkness released Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) back
in 2003 and aimed for the top spot; the coveted Christmas Number 1.
It features everything you would want in a Christmas chart
topper. There a sleigh bells, mentions of Santa, Mistletoe, Boxing Day and even
New Year. But being The Darkness, that wasn’t enough; so the song is littered
with guitar riffs, stomping drums and of course Justin Hawkins’ trademark
falsettos. How he reaches those notes no one knows, but they are truly
brilliant. Symbols smash as guitars slide up and down the scales in a manic,
but controlled manner. The inclusion of a child’s choral group to aid in the
final chorus adds to this tracks ‘uniqueness’. It’s mental, but breathtakingly
brilliant.
Did they win the race to number one? No, to put it bluntly. It
lost out (Very narrowly I might add) to the upbeat, laugh-a-minute Gary Jules cover of Mad World. Merry Christmas indeed.
But this is, and will always be a better Christmas song. Heck The Pogues or
Mariah Carey never made it to Christmas top spot, and we can’t stop playing
them every year! Lets face it, when was the last time you popped Mad World onto you Xmas Party Playlist?
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