Darker My Love

Darker My Love | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dangerbird
• ASIN: B000GIXELS
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,614 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The music of California's Darker My Love is guitars drenched in blissed-out fuzz, pulsing drums crashing like waves, and echoing harmonies stretching sky-high. Features ex-members of Distillers and Nerve Agents.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 or more, September 25, 2006

By 

alexander laurence (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darker My Love (Audio CD)

Darker My Love is a band that has been hanging in the LA music ghetto for a few years. Now may be their time. There is a lot of excitement around this record. I can tell you that all reports are good so far. This is a band that has recently played with The Fall and The Lyres. But they have transcended any influences. It's mainly psychedelic rock. But then we have the amazing hard-hitting rock of "What's A Mans Paris." The excitement continues with "Helium Heels" and "Post Mortem, Post Boredom." We haven't heard some fresh chord changes in a decade. The revolution has happened. Darker My Love is at the forefront of a new exuberant scene. This will be in mind as they take the stage at Sunset Junction in late August. This street festival is always a milemarker and taste of good things of the past and to come. One day we will all be dead. Darker My Love is one of the great things about being alive at this time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 stars compared to "2's four stars, but a solid starter, February 11, 2009

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Darker My Love (Audio CD)

Many previous listeners rated this highly. In retrospect compared to the initial reviews before the release of the follow-up: it's a good CD, but compared to "2," clearly a début on an indie label. It's full of passion and ideas if a bit awkward and raw in the actual product. It's often heavier than their second one, logically titled "2." (I reviewed that the day before I did this on Amazon.) As no previous Amazon reviewer has commented on the actual songs, here goes. "Opening" and "Post Mortem" resemble The Black Angels (both albums also reviewed by me) tribal droning or the Warlocks' gloomier delivery, as well as Jesus & Mary Chain at their most sluggish. There's also a hint of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" backbeat.

"What's a Man's Paris" has a catchier assault to match its strange title; "Helium Heels" moves along mid-tempo, more like the songs on "2" will. "Fall" may not predict their interim period touring with and then becoming The Fall, but it does lurch about more between fast and slow, and I think the drums into the guitar interlude halfway through do capture that band's longer tracks. There's also notably a growling voice mixed deep midstream into its vocal!

"Hello Traveler" blends a Swervedriver guitar-drums-bass propulsion with distortion pedals to good effect; the vocal harmonies needed to be not so muddy, however, and the percussion reels and stumbles near the end of the song too clunkily. "Claws & Paws" stalks like a feline through a dark tunnel before picking up the pace into a livelier, if no less thickly textured, sound. "Catch" continues the sludgier mood.

"People" follows patterns from post-punks like The Chameleons or Echo & the Bunnymen, but it does not improve much on this template. "I Feel Fine" is not a Beatles homage, but it shares a woozy psychedelic ambiance. These later songs on the record all are placed correctly-- a feature that helps "2" immensely-- but they tend to drag. Fine if you're in a downbeat mood, but they weigh the album down. This is not bad in itself, but after four songs, the closer "Summer Is Here" does pound more insistently, maybe as if The Stone Roses met "Little Games"-era Yardbirds? Yet, even it ends rather oddly.

The band improves on "2," but if like me you wanted more of DML after hearing that CD, this one's strong enough to warrant purchase. You can also find some songs on the Live at Spaceland releases from summer '06 when they were the house band at that Silverlake trendy nitespot. The production's murkier, the songs show more promise than finesse, and the writing's not as tight. Still, a promising first record from a band that has since proven its progress and its potential.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a total & complete mind blower, from start to end!!!, October 31, 2007

By 

1 BIG M.E.S. "Mark E. Sxxxx" (east coast, usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darker My Love (Audio CD)

whoa!!!...this is a 'must have' cd IF you like/love or listen to any of the following bands on a regular (or even semi-regular) basis (& DO MAKE SURE you read the names of EACH & EVERY artist/band mentioned...to make absolutely sure that you understand what this release can be put up against w/o any trouble: black rebel motorcycle club, the warlocks, sun dial, monster magnet (at their MOST psych stuff, like the early eps/lps, instead of their later stuff that leaned more towards 'metal'), brian jonestown massacre, loop, cream (their material where clapton plays blistering guitar), jimi hendrix experience, the hair & skin trading co. (in particular, their last full-length & last 2 singles/eps), singapore sling, the morning after girls (at their MOST psyched-out, trippy, fuzz-epics.....not the really mellow/dreamy stuff they do), spacemen 3, spiritualized (it'd take forever to try & explain why i have them added to this list.....but, i'm sure that, after reading the names of the artists/bands that i've just typed up before them, you can pretty much so figure out on you own exactly WHY i did!!!), swervedriver, the heads, the jesus & mary chain, the velvet underground (first 2 lps, in particular...their 2nd), jps experience (specifically, the 'bleeding star' full-length), my bloody valentine, farflung, magic dirt (esp. their earliest releases...most def. their self-titled debut), iron butterfly (their first 3 lps), the asteroid #4 (their debut full-length release), opal (listed here b'cuz of the many songs they did on the 'happy nightmare baby' lp, releasing a ton of heavy wah-wah, fuzz, & tripped-out guitar work w/several of the songs pretty much so being NOTHING BUT music for when you're reeeeeally high!!!), medicine (think the releases the put out, both singles/eps as well as albums, up to the lp 'her highness'), the soundtrack of our lives (whenever they have their super-sonic, psychedelic, groovin' sound goin'!!!), ride, hawkwind (from things off of their first 4 lps but, ONLY, b'cuz of this lp's rockers that just fly up up & away, whenever the guitarist gets his foot on/near the effect pedals, causing a song to break down into a literal 'sound riot', where amps are turned all the way up to 10), outrageous cherry (MOST DEFINITELY & W/O QUESTION!!!!!), the apples in stereo (if they were put on the same live bill as THIS band, it would be an absolutely PERFECT pairing-off of the two!!!), smashing orange (in particular, their s/t release & the lp 'above ming gardens'), kinski, the flaming lips (the earlier their releases, the better & reason(s) WHY i ALSO put them onto this list), the green pajamas, drop city (the psych/trippy stuff they do/have done &, as well as, the stuff they have done that is literally, 100% PURE, power pop, w/the emphasis on 'power'!!!), main (specifically, their release, 'motion pool'), chapterhouse (the first 4-track ep), cato salsa experience, starflyer 59 (their loudest, catchy, 'pop' songs.....&, even some of their quieter moments, as well),.....

this comparison list, i'm sure, could be 2 or 3x the size that it is...BUTTT, if ANY/ALL of these bands/artists listed are the bands that you like/love to listen to/play in very, verrrry heavy rotation, if you don't already own a copy of this, GET ONE.....LIKE NOW.....LIKE YESTERDAY!!!...YES, IT'S 'THAT' GOOD!!!...

i do not think this would disappoint fans of any of the bands just listed (where some are listed w/o anything (i.e. comment) after their names &, then, some that are listed w/reference points, given after their names (i.e. specific lps, singles/eps, OR like where i put things like 'the earlier, the better', etc.).....i just remembered that i didnt put the lilys on here (def. whenever they went total power pop w/a psych edge), adorable, black tambourine, el goodo, the black angels, the house of love (certain picks from different albums, as well as, singles/eps that have great vocal harmonies going along with music they could EASILY be buried inside of but, b'cuz of fantastic production/engineering of them, they don't take over the song(s) i'm referring to...instead, it's as if the vocals are just 'another' instrument, mixing PERFECTLY with the rest of the song(s)/music), landing.....if you are extremely famialiar w/the just listed artists/bands, as in you're on a 'first-name' basis w/them & you play stuff by them on a massively, regular basis, THIS ALBUM IS ONE NOT TO BE MISSED!!!!!

& if you are a daydreamer/daysleeper, actually 'preferring' to sleep during the daylight hours & spending the majority of the hours in which you are awake, in a room playing things on a stereo, one thing/band/release after the next, &...despite the volume that you have your amp turned up to, you STILL find yourself, as if it weighs a massive weight, hanging (& with) your head down, your chin resting on your chest, your eyes closed, barely any light in the room where you are &, as you sit (or lay) there, saliva slides freely out of your mouth & ends up in places on your shirt OR on your pants depending on the way that you're sitting.....or bettter yet, if you are laying on a couch or a floor, just WHERE EXACTLY it ends up after it comes out of the mouth and rolls slowly off of your lips...), holding onto pillows, & in an almost, coma-like state of mind, where literally nothing can get you out of it, butttttt, you really don't want to.....you feel waaaay too good the way that you are!!!.....if this makes sense to you, you know what i'm talking about and i don't have to elaborate any further.....it doesn't get any more so narcotic!!!

music for late night when YOU ARE THE ONLY SOUL AWAKE (pretty much so) & you allow yourself to get so into the music & sound(s) that are surrounding you, it's THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS!!!

put it on, turn it up, and get ready for a beautiful,
mind-blowing, auditory experience!!!

absolutely captivating!!!