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Seeds of greatness in ‘Rush!’

Måneskin is perhaps one of the biggest rock bands in the world at the moment since their win at the 2021 Eurovision contest. What was once a small Italian rock band was propelled to stardom with their rock song “ZITTI E BUONI” (“shut up and be good” in English). From there they released “Beggin’,” a new rock cover of the original 1967 song by The Four Seasons, which gave new life to the band internationally. Since its release, “Beggin’” has amassed over one billion streams on Spotify, endless radio minutes and millions of purchases worldwide on iTunes.

Even if people are unfamiliar with the band name Måneskin, they are definitely acquainted with some of their songs and know their general sound. But since 2021 the Italian quartet has not slowed down music production, with instead a number of singles and albums being released. In less than two years, the band began work on the “Elvis” movie, they covered classic songs such as “If I can Dream” and recreated the iconic Elvis music sound, as well as beginning to record in a studio in Los Angeles rather than in Rome.

Their rise through the charts has been swift and clear, but their newest album titled “Rush!” is not their best—however, the fault of the album does not rest in the hands of the band but rather in their record label and producer: Max Martin.

The album is slightly smaller than most,only containing 17 songs, of which three were released as singles prior to the album’s release. “Rush!,” as opposed to past albums of Måneskin, only has four songs in Italian with the rest in English, a huge departure from prior albums such as “Teatro d’ira: Vol. I” and “Il ballo della vita,” which only had a couple of songs in English with the majority of them in Italian. 

Now, for real Måneskin fans you may raise the point that their first album “Chosen” had only one song in Italian and that it is similar linguisitically to “Rush!”. While statistically that may be true, one must be reminded of the fact that “Chosen” was mostly cover songs of American rock, a strategy European bands use to see if European ears and even American ears like their sound and would listen to original music in the future. So “Rush!” is a bit of an outlier from their previous work, with it being entirely original music and mostly an English album.

Now there is a lot going on in this album, which the band makes very clear is about their mental state and transition from Italy to the United States. The anchor songs of the album “GOSSIP,” “SUPERMODEL” and “THE LONELIEST,” all describe their lives in Los Angeles. The amount of control the media has over people in how they dig up dirt on stars, the wild lives people live to seem cool or attractive and how they have been feeling after being removed from their families is all put on clear display in this album. In these songs their voice comes through but their sound remains relatively similar from song to song.

If someone without any knowledge of Måneskin were to listen to the album all the way through, the transitions between songs would be difficult to pick up. This is because the record label, headed by Max Martin, is trying to capitalize on the sound which worked for them in songs such as “Beggin’” and “ZITTI E BUONI.” It is an unfortunate bastardization of their creative liberty as artists and sad reduction of the band to a simple redundancy of one of their sounds, when as a group they are capable of so much more. Unfortunately, this formula which Martin has been using for this album is pervasive throughout.

Seeds of originality can be found within the album, but they require some digging to find. In my own personal opinion the songs that are holding this album up are “GOSSIP,” “TIMEZONE,” “BABY SAID,” “FEEL,” “IF NOT FOR YOU,” “IL DONO DELLA VITA” (“the gift of life” in English), “SUPERMODEL” and “THE LONELIEST.” From these songs—roughly half of the album—you get a raw and true Måneskin. “TIMEZONE” and “IF NOT FOR YOU” styled as ballads which profess the band’s depression being so far away from everyone back in Rome.

It may not all be hard rock, but a band that is being heralded as the band to “save rock and roll” does not need to fit to the standards of what American ears think of when they think of rock. Our narrow conception of rock and roll seems to bring us back to late ’80s and early ’90s rock, but why is that so? Is it not the beauty of music to see it shift and as listeners to appreciate the artist for finding their own niche and not trying to fit into that of prior top bands?

Måneskin has a lot to say about their new lives. Whether it be the heartbreaking songs which will make anyone tear up thinking about the difficulty of living 11,000 miles away from your loved ones, or the Italian choruses where it is clear Måneskin has a lot more to say in Italian, and a much better control of the music with their native language, Måneskin has more in the tank.

We cannot limit or confine them to what our standards of rock are nor should they be tethered to a producer who exhibits such control over them. The song which I am not personally a fan of but appreciate for its uniqueness is “BLA BLA BLA,” where they were given a song to show how original they can be, that song even being bass player Victoria De Angelis’ favorite song for just that reason!

I really do love Måneskin as a band and “Morirò da Re” from their album “Il ballo della vita” has got to be my faovirte song at the moment. I want the band to be able to explore themselves because the stardom they have is well beyond earned, but the manipulation surrounding them has got to go. I know they are capable of handling the stardom and continuing to pump out music with how driven they are, but I want Måneskin to be Måneskin again. “Rush!” is a step toward larger labels and bigger names but a step away perhaps from the band’s roots. Saplings of the original Måneskin and great songs can be found in “Rush!” but more is needed. Non permettere a nessuno di controllarti, Måneskin.



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