The Darts unleash ‘Halloween Love Songs’ album

It’s Halloween night, and someone knocks on the door. The knock is followed by the familiar cry of ‘Trick or treat!’ When you open the door, there they are: The Darts. These forces of nature and the undisputed queens of garage rock, psych-punk and surf punk are here to welcome us to the scariest night of the year with their new album, Halloween Love Songs. But don’t be fooled by the title. This isn’t a record about the spooky season. It’s about the electricity that crackles in the air when the sun goes down, the music gets louder and the night finally comes alive.

This new work, the culmination of years of hard-won experience, captures two distinct moments from the band’s Halloween nights imagery. Side A opens with Midnight Creep, an invitation to dance, flirt and sneak a peek past midnight, a song that immediately sets the tone for what follows. Think camp horror movies, playful theatrics and a darkness that you want to move your body to, rather than run from. This spirit continues through Zombies on the Metro – a clever metaphor for the zombification of modern working life – and Every Night Is Halloween, before the album moves on to Transylvanian romance and obsession with the unreal, with the thrilling Vampires in Love, the hazy Dream Ghost, and the rockabilly-tinged Blood Run Cold.

Apocalypse marks the album’s turning point, when the bonfire grows higher and the shadows grow longer. Rather than treating the end of the world as something to fear, the song reimagines it as a liberating ritual dance around the flames, where the apocalypse is merely an excuse to stop being afraid. It opens with a caveman stomp and a wall of Mudhoney-thick fuzz, anchored by an iconic rallying cry: No Kings.

“I wrote the lyric ‘no future, no kings’ with that message in mind. And in a stroke of absolute karmic coincidence, a year after this song was written — while it was still just a demo on my laptop that no one had yet heard — ‘No Kings’ became a protest rallying cry across the USA. We added the song to our setlist and audiences everywhere came to us after the shows asking where they could buy it.” (Nicole Laurenne)

From there, The Devil Made Me Do It, Darkness, Haunt Me and Late Drive unfold like a short nocturnal film, with themes of guilt, emotional addiction and escapism rendered in the style of gothic and romantic cinema. From the inner demon haunting the alleyways of ‘poison, love and broken hearts’ to the spectral lover whispering from the treeline on a deserted road, this is music about a self trying to outrun itself, only to realise that the running itself is the art.

Musically, Side B embraces the fuzz and repetitive groove of Lindsay’s bass and the twangy, spaghetti western-style guitar of Rebecca, creating a unique texture. Rikki’s slower drumbeat gives Nicole’s vocal inflections room to breathe, while the omnipresent organ hovers in the background like a friendly ghost. At their core, The Darts remain committed to the garage-psych sound they share with The Cramps, as well as the organ-fuelled roar that can be traced back to the raw electricity of The Seeds in the ’60s. However, they also have the ability to switch things up; when the energy surges, there are echoes of the high-wire ferocity of Swiss band The Jackets and the more ritualistic, mystical world of Death Valley Girls.

The Darts will be on tour in 2026, tearing through the US, Europe, the UK and Japan. If you get the chance to see them live, don’t miss it! When they knock on your city’s door, open it wide.

The Darts On Tour 2026

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