It’s out now, then, this… *Best Of* ? As if by magic, 18 months after the demise of The Darkness, this arrives. Both albums and the Christmas single are on it. Question is, WHY? Lots of questions, actually.

• Who is it aimed at? Not the faithful. It’s not a collectors’ item, not got anything unusual on it, nothing special. If it was aimed at us as a moneyspinner, it missed, big time. If it was aimed at Joe Public – well, who knows what they’re going to buy, but I have my doubts. In any case, there’s been no marketing, we found out by accident about this one, and spread the news ourselves.
• What could have made it WOW? B-sides. Bareback. Fan’s favourites. A bit of thought? Special inserts? ASKING what we’d like? Although, of course, if not aimed at us then that’s a bit irrelevant. Actually, as someone pointed out, we’re still waiting for the Live DVD that never made it. THAT would have been massive!
• Front cover? No logo. Why? Legal reasons? Or because Justin’s gone and he designed it? And WHY, for the love of rock, would you put TD posing as the iconic Queen image on the front of a TD celebration CD? Something very wonky with THAT. In fact, it reinforces the feelings of those out there who only ever wrote them off as a Queen rip-off. Plus it isn’t actually the best photo of them.
• No PR/Marketing? Well, that we know of. Why not? Am I missing something? Why would it be kept quiet?
• Whodunnit?Prime suspects are Atlantic/Warner, to recoup (written off) losses. However, if this is a money making thing, then there’s no sales push. Can’t see that the record company would give a monkey’s about Stone Gods’ feelings on intruding on their nascent fame… so no need to keep quiet on that front. Do they not have approval from those four lads? Would they care? Is it necessary? Who was asked, if anyone? If it isn’t the record company – that leaves the TD lads. They might be tied in to doing this as part of a losses deal. Money? There might be other reasons of which no one will ever be aware, on both sides of the coin. Legal ownership of the songs is another issue. If Party A owns them, then does Party B then have no say? And if Party B owns them, then some sort of deal between the two is likely. Where do Justin and Frankie fit into agreements?

All as clear as mud – headache on its way. Whatever’s going on, it’s not a very popular move, from what I see and hear. I’m loath to buy anything official that hasn’t got TD’s logo on it.