Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Måneskin.
‘They sound like they’re having the time of their lives’ … Måneskin. Photograph: Tommaso Ottomano
‘They sound like they’re having the time of their lives’ … Måneskin. Photograph: Tommaso Ottomano

Måneskin: Rush! review – Eurovision winners extend their improbable 15 minutes of fame

This article is more than 1 year old

(Epic)
The Italian quartet prove themselves sharp operators with an infectiously enthusiastic record inspired by a grab-bag of influences

Has there been a more improbable pop phenomenon in recent years than the rise of Rome-based quartet Måneskin? Whatever your musical predictions for 2021 were, they definitely didn’t include an international breakthrough by the runners-up of the Italian X Factor. They were unexpectedly propelled to global stardom by victory in the Eurovision song contest and a viral surge in the popularity of their cover of the Four Seasons’ 1967 hit Beggin’. Måneskin’s version takes its cues not from the original, but a 21st-century version by Norwegian hip-hop duo Madcon. Initially, Måneskin’s success seemed to be the type that came with the inbuilt tang of short-lived novelty; instead things just seemed to escalate: a support slot on the Rolling Stones’ US tour; a collaboration with Iggy Pop; an appearance on the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic; more than 6.5bn streams. At the end of summer 2022, a point by which observers might reasonably have assumed Måneskin’s 15 minutes would long be over, they were instead in a position to sack-off an appearance at the Reading and Leeds festival because they had a better offer: an appearance at the MTV VMAs, at which they walked off with the best alternative video award.

The artwork for Rush!

Perhaps Måneskin are rather sharper operators than the unexpectedly-propelled-to-global-fame narrative implies. Listening to Rush!, their first album with lyrics primarily in English, you’re struck by how canny their sound is. Once purveyors of wan funk-rock in the vein of the Red Hot Chili Peppers – a sound that netted vast success in their homeland – they gave themselves an overhaul shortly before Eurovision, while temporarily residing in London: the only track on Rush! that resembles Flea and co is the lumbering La Fine, which is also the worst thing here. These days, the label that’s most frequently attached to them is glam, but that seems largely rooted in their penchant for flared catsuits and lyrical expressions of non-specific rebellion: “Honestly, I don’t give a fuck / I’m addicted to rock’n’roll, yeah,” frontman Damiano David barks on Kool Kids, a song that also offers the band’s disinclination to use dental floss as evidence of their wild-eyed outsider status. Certainly, the glam tag has almost nothing to do with the music: Read Your Diary features glam drums, but somehow feels like it has more in common with the 00s pop that also used that rhythm – Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl, Britney Spears’ Womanizer – than the oeuvre of Slade or Sweet.

Måneskin: The Loneliest – video

In fact, Måneskin’s curious grab-bag of influences is hard to accurately label, and thus perfect for the post-genre, non-tribal I-like-a-bit-of-everything era of streaming. It outwardly leans towards hard rock: the distorted guitars, the squealing guest appearance by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello on Gossip and the downtuned, growling bass of Gasoline are just about heavy enough to qualify them for a place in the pages of Kerrang!. Equally, Gasoline’s four-to-the-floor pulse and its dynamics appear to be influenced by mainstream dance music: there are dramatic drops and moments where it cuts to silence before the riff slowly builds again. Meanwhile, the melodies throughout are pure mainstream pop, an aspect particularly pronounced on ballads Timezone and the genuinely beautiful If Not for You: not for nothing do a host of spendy writers-for-hire appear in Rush!’s credits, among them Max Martin, who also produces.

But the biggest influences on Rush! might be the Killers and Franz Ferdinand, two bands Måneskin covered back in the days when they were still trying to impress whoever Italy’s equivalent of Simon Cowell is. Bla Bla Bla’s semi-spoken vocals and relentless rhythmic pulse seem cut from the same cloth as the Killers’ Mr Brightside, albeit without that song’s undeniable chorus. The ghost of Alex Kapranos, meanwhile, seems to lurk everywhere: in the staccato riffs of Don’t Wanna Sleep and Feel, the scratchy angular guitar on Mammamia and the album’s frequent recourse to post-punk disco drums, as on the frantic Mark Chapman, a dead ringer for Franz’s 2004 hit Michael.

Måneskin’s skill lies not just in assembling an array of influences into something that’s genuinely coherent, but in making the end result sound oddly guileless, rather than a carefully thought-through exercise in ticking boxes. What Rush! lacks in heft – a couple of glancing lyrical references to sexuality and gender notwithstanding, not even Måneskin’s loudest cheerleader is going to claim it as a weighty album – it makes up for in enthusiasm. If that enthusiasm occasionally tips over into a cloying eagerness to please (Supermodel is a little too desperate to remind listeners of Smells Like Teen Spirit), more often it’s infectious. The people behind it sound like they’re having the time of their lives, making the most of their unexpected moment in the spotlight: a moment that Rush! seems likely to extend further.

This week Alexis listened to

Everything But The Girl Nothing Left to Lose
More than 20 years later, Everything But the Girl return with a pitch-perfect 2023 update of the dance music plus lyrical misery they minted in the 90s.

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed