Released in , "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness is a quintessential glam rock anthem that revitalized the genre's flamboyant spirit during an era dominated by more serious music. As the third single from their debut album Permission to Land , it catapulted the band to international stardom, peaking at #2 on the UK Singles Chart and achieving platinum status in multiple countries. Musical Style and Composition
It features the band performing in space, battling a giant red-tentacled monster and a crab with laser-emitting instruments. The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love
The song draws heavily from 1970s and 80s glam rock icons like Queen and The Sweet , blending theatricality with hard rock riffs. Released in , "I Believe in a Thing
The music video, directed by Alex Smith, is as famous as the song itself for its eccentric, low-budget sci-fi aesthetic. The song draws heavily from 1970s and 80s
Hawkins wrote the lyrics with a "daft" but sincere focus on the overwhelming feeling of being in love, using vehicular metaphors like "steering wheel" and "overdrive" to describe romantic excitement.
The band deliberately set out to write an "up and stupidly 80s" song because they felt other contemporary bands were too "cool" to openly use the word "love". The Iconic Music Video
The crab in the video was a coded reference to cocaine use (eyes on stalks), reflecting the band's upbringing in the fishing town of Lowestoft.