Måneskin – Rush! Review

Excruciating from word go, Måneskin’s foray into their post-Eurovision success is not a good one. Rush! has the unenviable task of capturing a social boom and rise in interest. But that attentive audience came in a sound that predates Rush!. A sound that Måneskin appears to no longer have interest in after Fear for Nobody dropped. Lighter lyrical tone be damned. Måneskin’s latest outing shows a band content glossing over rough filler with the hope that generalities and soullessness will ignite a spark in the fuel of their growing attention. Not a spark of creativity, but a spark of marketable terms that reflect a stock image and the cruel TikTok push, a standard draw that will drop off a few years from now after this basic genre staples butchering.

Rush! and the tracks that form it could easily be used as cannon fodder for a forgotten mid-2000s wrestling game. What a horrible insult to Mercy Drive that is. From the barely intelligible mixing that gives OWN MY MIND no lyrical or instrumental hook to stand on to the blatantly dull BLA BLA BLA. That does give some perspective on Rush!, the best informal descriptor available for their work here. Blah, blah, blah, it goes on and on from obvious collisions of “smart/dumb” end-of-lyric hooks to the inarticulate self-medication hints on DON’T WANNA SLEEP. Heavy drums, butchered basslines and self-flagellation through drink and drugs that Ozzy Osbourne and Mötley Crüe covered decades ago. No new form. No new thought. KOOL KIDS is a desperate attempt at capturing IDLES’ shouty style but without the passion behind those empty Måneskin words and riffs.

Where there is much to be said for Greta Van Fleet and their blatant rip-off of Led Zeppelin, there is little to be said of Måneskin and whatever Rush! is trying to rip. At least Greta Van Fleet is obvious about their intent. It feels like Måneskin are stretched too thin by what was expected of a rip-roaring third album that captured international acclaim. “You’re not iconic, you are just like them all” is as ironic as it gets for Måneskin, whose apparent lack of self-awareness marks GOSSIP, a track about uniqueness, as dryly-laden, where the best part is the little riff given by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Overt and empty sexualisation from a band allegedly right at the forefront of a powerful push instead rides the rough waves of fill-in-the-blanks listening. Damiano David shrugs his shoulders at each and every line, hoping someone out there is feeling that main character energy that floats loud music with no soul to chart-topping success.

Måneskin bassist Victori DeAngelis once said: “It was very difficult because in Rome there’s no real rock scene,” and there is still no sign of life for that scene, especially if Rush! is what the band are going to rest on. Ironic it may be that a band praised for their sex-mad rush is as sterile as this, Rush! is proof of their sham show. Having sexuality at the front of an image does not equate to interesting or powerful commentary on said sexuality. It is not enough to exist. A statement must be made and Måneskin runs empty on Rush!. In a time where representation matters, it feels insulting of Rush! to provide no specifics and instead coat each track, particularly BABY SAID and the cold-shoulder liberation of GASOLINE, with annoying instrumentals.

They may be as addicted to rock and roll as the self-descriptors such an album title presents, but Måneskin proves to be a hollow shell. Their basic riffs and chords, their attempt at disguising their lack of vision with loud mixes and power-pop rock stylings are awful. Rush! is a do-it-yourself disaster that preys and depends on the faults of an individual being projected onto each track, rather than a belief or emotional understanding being present. Showing “the dark side of rock and roll”, as it turns out, means making something voluntarily empty. Måneskin’s move from Eurovision stars to generic rock swill was inevitable when each and every lyric is devoid of an image the band were apparently proud of championing.