The Darkness Dreams On Toast

Critic's Take

The Darkness continue to traffic in gilded pastiche on Dreams On Toast, their eighth record, oscillating between bravura and novelty with characteristic cheek. The Darkness deliver stomping opener “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy” and the tender surprise “Don’t Need Sunshine” as the album’s clearest high points, one a barnstorming pastiche and the other a quietly intimate hymn. Where the band leans into brass and theatre on tracks like “I Hate Myself” and “The Battle for Gadget Land”, the record falters, trading gravitas for pub-rock grooves. For listeners asking which are the best songs on Dreams On Toast, the centrepiece moments are the opener and the ballad, which together show both the band’s bluster and its unexpected warmth.

Key Points

• “Don’t Need Sunshine” is best because it reveals an intimate, tender side that transcends the band’s usual pastiche.
• The album’s core strength is its grandeur and ceremony balanced against catchy, riff-driven glam metal.

Themes

Critic's Take

In a typically gleeful, slightly filthy tone, The Darkness deliver on Dreams On Toast with songs like “Walking Through Fire” and “Hot on My Tail” standing out as the best tracks - the former a knockout, brutally funny arena rocker about being a band in 2025, the latter a breezy, filthy vignette of interrupted foreplay. Dave Everley’s writing celebrates the album’s anthemic jokiness and its uncanny knack for slipping in serious themes, so the best songs on Dreams On Toast feel both hilarious and resonant. The record’s closing flourish “Weekend In Rome” also gets kudos for its orchestral sweep and celebrity-spoken coda, rounding out what Everley calls an outrageously great record. Overall, the review frames the best tracks as those that balance The Darkness’ gags-per-song ratio with unexpected emotional weight, making them the album highlights.

Key Points

• The best song, "Walking Through Fire", is the album’s standout for its brutal, funny portrayal of being a rock band in 2025.
• The album’s core strengths are its sharp humour, theatrical anthems, and the way jokes conceal genuine emotional weight.

Themes

Critic's Take

The Darkness sound unapologetically like themselves on Dreams On Toast, and the reviewer leans into that giddy theatricality when naming the best tracks. He singles out “Walking Through Fire” as excellent and frames “Hot on My Tail” as part of the band’s creative streak, argumentatively claiming these are among the best songs on Dreams On Toast. The tone is affectionate and wry, admiring how the band pivot around their own preposterousness to find gold. This review reads like a friend cheering them on - confident, amused and convinced the long-player still matters.

Key Points

• The reviewer names 'Walking Through Fire' as the album's best song because it exemplifies the band’s continued knack for hit-minded songwriting.
• The album’s core strength is its playful, unabashed guitar-rock identity and the band’s ability to pivot their preposterousness into creative gold.

Themes

Critic's Take

The Darkness return with Dreams On Toast, an album that leans hard into theatrical glam and knowing British wit while delivering a few genuine high points. The reviewer’s ear catches the record’s best songs - “The Longest Kiss”, “Walking Through Fire” and “I Hate Myself” - praising lush, solo-heavy extravagance, anthemic late-album momentum, and bluesy saxophone flourishes respectively. Stylistically scattershot and sometimes distractingly silly, the album still wins you over through impeccable arrangement, charm and that grubby, irresistible sense of fun. Ultimately, if you search for the best tracks on Dreams On Toast, these cuts are the ones that most consistently reward repeat listens.

Key Points

• The Longest Kiss is best for its lush, Queen-like guitar extravagance that the reviewer highlights as a standout.
• The album's core strengths are impeccable arrangements, humourous charm, and nostalgic glam-rock flair despite stylistic scatter.

Themes

Critic's Take

In this review Jeremy Lukens writes that The Darkness on Dreams On Toast still revels in over-the-top glam, and the best songs - like “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy” and “Walking Through Fire” - prove the band can be knowingly ridiculous and genuinely anthemic at once. Lukens notes the album wears its influences proudly, from Queen-like falsetto on “I Hate Myself” to an AC/DC homage in “Mortal Dread”, so the best tracks are those that balance pastiche with big hooks. He praises Justin Hawkins's swaggering croon and the brothers' riffcraft as the reason the standout tracks still feel stadium-ready. The reviewer frames the record as for listeners who keep falling in love with rock and want its power celebrated, even when the band is clearly having fun with the joke.

Key Points

• The best song, "Walking Through Fire", distills the band’s self-aware charm and melodic pull, making it the album’s emotional center.
• Dreams On Toast’s core strengths are big, nostalgic riffs, theatrical vocals, and a wink-and-smile attitude that keeps pastiche fun and stadium-ready.

Themes

Critic's Take

In a characteristically cheeky and affectionate tone Paul Moody notes that The Darkness haven’t lost their knack for stadium-sized hooks on Dreams On Toast, with the anthemic “Walking Through Fire” and the gleaming pop of “The Longest Kiss” standing out. He emphasises how the band’s take-it-or-leave-it spirit fuels songs like “I Hate Myself” and “The Battle for Gadget Land”, while unexpected country turns such as “Cold Hearted Woman” and “Hot on My Tail” add texture. The narrative balances praise for their innate pop sensibility with delight in their continued Marmite provocations, recommending these best tracks for anyone searching for the best songs on Dreams On Toast.

Key Points

• Walking Through Fire is best for its fist-in-the-air anthemic quality that recalls why fans fell in love with the band.
• The album’s core strength is marrying gleaming pop sensibility with playful, genre-bending pastiche and stadium-ready hooks.

Themes