Justin Hawkins may be about to star in a horror movie but Classic Rock’s Ian Fortnam has heard the debut album from his Hot Leg project.
Hot Leg – Red Light Fever
If anything Justin Hawkins has concentrated the flavour of his trademark Marmite ‘man’ rock for the debut album from his latest post-Darkness project, Hot Leg. Which is, of course, either very good or very bad news, depending on how you felt about the temporarilly Zeitgeist-hogging sound of Permission To Land.
Rather than temper the intricately-arranged post-Queen vocal falsettos, seventies-styled glam commerciality and quintessentially English, seaside postcard pun-drenched lyrics of The Darkness, he’s intensified the whole Justin experience, and the resultant album is as exquisitely opinion-splitting as one might expect.
Personal preferences aside though, Justin Hawkins is a master of the irresistible hook, and Red Light Fever is positively littered with them. Hot Leg undoubtedly rock, but they’re tempered with a pop dynamic that you’ll either love to hate or hate to love.