Photo by: Brenden Cowan
3/5
Italian rock band Måneskin is back with a new album release on Jan. 20 called RUSH!. The band’s new album accomplishes what it sets out to do, with reintroducing their larger-than-life group personality, but certain songs are left lacking uniqueness.
The album RUSH! is their first release since their 2021 album, Teatro d’ira: Vol. I, which roughly translates to “theatre of anger.” Their last release was a hard act to follow considering it featured songs like “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE” that gained popularity through platforms like TikTok, and also acted as a catalyst for over 76 concerts around the world in 2022 alone. RUSH!, however, is the band’s first primarily English album and is said to be inspired by the works of other alternative electronic rock bands like Radiohead.
Just like previous releases, Måneskin’s newest album manages to walk the fine line between “cheesy, over-the-top rock and roll” and the more classic “sex, drugs, and rock and roll,” sound.
Overall, RUSH! manages to maintain the sound of their most popular songs from years ago — like their cover in 2017 of The Four Seasons’ 1967 song “Beggin’” — but it becomes repetitive over the 17 tracks; there’s only so much you can hear of the same electric guitar.
Best Song
By far, the best song on the album is “TIMEZONE,” which is interesting considering it strays furthest from their typical sound. This song’s laden heavy guitar matched well with the enraged lyrics to form a shared catharsis with the listener. The lyrics, in particular, are what make this song stand out from the rest on the album. While most of the tracks’ lyrics are rather bland and uninteresting, or about their go-to topics — sex and drugs — there is a lot more emotion behind the lyrics of “TIMEZONE” and it seems to tell the story of pain that is felt when you feel far away from someone that you love.
Middle of The Pack
If there had to be one song to act as the representative of all of the others on RUSH!, it would be “OWN MY MIND.” The electronic effect placed on the vocals and the catchy titular chorus make for a classic Måneskin song. “OWN MY MIND” is reminiscent of music from Panic! At The Disco or other artists like Adam Lambert. Like most of the songs on the album, this one’s lyrics aren’t anything special but the runtime of the song is relatively short, so it doesn’t become too repetitive or annoying.
This might be too niche for most people, but this song reminds me of something that would play in an episode of the series Pretty Little Liars, such as during season three, episode 13
This Is A Dark Ride on the Rosewood Halloween Ghost Train.
Worst Song
While there aren’t necessarily any bad songs on this album, “BLA BLA BLA” is infuriating. Here me out: the track is catchy, the lyric video is put together well, and the lyrics give those in “TIMEZONE” a run for their money. But, this song could have been so much more. Based on the aforementioned highlights of the song, “BLA BLA BLA” could have easily been the best song on this album if it had just one verse that was different or one guitar solo to break up the repetitiveness. The first time that I listened to it, I kept waiting for something, anything, to give it an extra kick of uniqueness, which is why the song’s continuation of the same beat and the same monotonous verses made it so infuriating to listen to.
Måneskin’s new album RUSH! brings forward a new sample of their typical sound – this time mainly in English – but it ends up being mediocre considering the repetitiveness of lyrics and songs like “BLA BLA BLA” that had missed potential.