The Darkness have announced the release of their eighth studio album, Dreams on Toast, which will arrive March 28, 2025. To accompany the news, they shared the piano-led, tender rock single “The Longest Kiss,” which pays tribute to Seventies pop icons Queen and Paul McCartney.
“The Longest Kiss” chronicles the kind of smooch that might make a person feel ready to get down on one knee. “I lost all perception of time/ It sounds ridiculous, but I swear it was sublime/ Now, all I ever want to do/Is break that record that I set that day with you,” Hawkins sings ahead of the refrain.
Frontman Justin Hawkins and his brother and bandmate Dan Hawkins came up with the chorus after Dan took “a long time to empty his bladder during some impressive pub endurance,” Justin said in a statement. He added that the song originates from a musical that’s a decade in the making called The Collapse of the Lowestoft Fishing Industry.
“Misty Orchards! That’s not my porn name, that’s the kind of scenery that I love,” Hawkins continued. “I awakened to such a vista in the delightful Scottish highland town of Nairn on the morning that inspiration for ‘The Longest Kiss’ lyric struck. I was bleary eyed and locked in an unending embrace with my (mid)life partner. Weird that I can still sing, but that’s a testament to the resilience of humans, especially lead singers.”
The Darkness will begin touring Dreams on Toast, an album which Hawkins called “aromatic aural ragu, served atop the charred remains of our envious contemporaries,” in March. The rock band will kickoff their tour with 17 shows in the U.K. North American dates will be announced soon, according to a press release.
The band’s 2003 hit, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” recently went viral after Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce (Swift’s boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end) were caught belting the lyrics to the rock classic at the US Open earlier this month. Hawkins responded to the popular clip in a TikTok video, reflecting on the “extraordinary” hospitality his family experienced at The Eras Tour and the note the popstar left on one of their VIP seats.
“What a thrill to have you at the show!” Swift wrote to Hawkins. “I’m a massive fan of yours and think ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ is one of the greatest songs of all time. I hope you and your family have fun at the show! Thanks so much for coming!”
