Måneskin - Rush! ALBUM REVIEW 

You are just mad the band isn’t named Mëlonskin

As an italian, this feels great. When their fans say their italian songs are so deep I wonder if they’ve ever read a book

Italian watcher here. Watching Cal speaking Italian has been an earthshattering experience.

This is a victory for me, my ex loved this band

GRAZIE TESTA A MELONE SEI IL VERO ORGOGLIO ITALIANO 🇮🇹🍈

It's an honor to see an Italian band reviewed and being roasted by the melon

Italian imagine dragons

You can't just say "I cooka da meatball" over and over again and call it a review

When I heard they won Eurovision I thought we were gonna get a new revolution of rock. Then I heard their song with Tom Morello. Then I realized their biggest song is a cover. Then I listened to the album. No rock revolution for us

“I feel like this is a kidz bop version of an IDLES song” holy shit the melon is brutal in this video

I think they were given a lot of pressure to appeal to the American market. I can’t explain how I feel about this album, it’s definitely not something I would go back to. I still have three of their Italian language tracks on my replay.

The ONE time someone from Italy becomes famous doing something kinda cool (even if not revolutionary) they immediately change and turn into the funhouse version of themselves

I can't believe something born out of Eurovision ended up so bad. Truly one of the moments of all time.

All of their songs in english sound like their pandering to some group that I don't even know exists. It's a shame because some of their original material in Italian sounded decent.

I really liked what they were doing when they came onto the scene. Damiano has a nice, raspy voice. The lyrics were playful and tongue-in-cheek. I don't know what the hell happened. The lyrics are either cringey or out of touch. Damiano's voice is drowned in autotune, which makes no sense because he can actually sing. This album took everything likeable about them and tossed it in the trash, which is really unfortunate. Hopefully it's just a bump in the road :/

As someone who really enjoyed their Eurovision winning track (Zitti E Buoni), their nosedive since then has been kinda sad to see. I never had them down as the next Foo Fighters or something, like absolute rock megastars, but they sounded like a fun and anarchic garage rock throwback band, campy and catchy kinda like The Darkness or something. I mean, the mere fact they entered Eurovision, the most campy and cheesy music contest on the planet, and won? That should tell you what their appeal is. Whoever decided they should be pushed as the next breakthrough mainstream rock act has utterly failed them. Lame covers, Tom Morello features, and goddamn MAX MARTIN on songwriting and production credits? It's not just that the attempt for crossover success was ill-judged to begin with, but it was done badly to boot. Can you imagine Lordi winning Eurovision in 2006 with a ridiculously over the top hard rock/heavy metal banger, then immediately trying to shoot for crossover mainstream appeal by taking away what made them interesting to begin with? Yeah, good luck with that. Shame. I kinda hope once the hype and fallout from this record has died down and they've faded from public consciousness, they realise the shot at the big time is over and just go back to writing fun garage rock jams again. At least they were having fun with that, and were more fun to listen to.

Just a note on the fact that you mentioned about them coming out of X-Factor: unfortunately, if you want to blow up in Italy, that is practically the only way to do it. Also because you can only go to the Eurovision if you win the Sanremo Festival, to which you can't participate unless you're already pretty established. There are other ways but it's always via contests.. Basically the music industry/ music scene in Italy goes forward through contests and competitions, so I really wouldn't criticise them for that

måneskin's music before being signed was so authentic and organic. they were kids that happened to be from italy that just so happened to love writing music and they did it well. their italian songs were poetic but didn't feel melodramatic, and even to a non-italian speaker you could tell there was a story being told. their english songs were great; the band knew how to have fun without compromising their distinct style. their music was rich with layers of instruments and vocals and a production style that was truly their own. you could hear a few seconds of a song and say "yep, that's måneskin." they got signed to a major label (an american one, i might add) and now all these hollywood people write and produce their music, chose the themes, and manufacture their brand. and it shows. the stylistic changes between albums like chosen and teatro d'ira and what we have now with rush can't just be attributed to their "growth as a band" or "change in taste." it reeks of a label cashing in on the "edgy" crowd they know makes them money without getting to know måneskin as people and as artists. their instruments and vocals are now flat, their rhythm quantized, and their lyrical content cliche, predictable, and transparent. you know these songs were made by people sitting in a boardroom, not by a group of young ones with something to say. not anymore. not to mention, teatro d'ira was a volume 1. now we may never know how the series continues because the label made them put out rush. måneskin is great when they are allowed to do what they want, not when they are pigeon-holed into what the industry thinks sells. they lost me after i heard mammamia for the first time. it was obvious that the label wanted another IWBYS and i knew that the music wouldn't be the same afterwards. then i was proven right when i heard supermodel, the loneliest, and whatever came out before and after that. i fell in love with måneskin for the stories they told, the causes they believed in, and their incredible knack for creating a mood that was uniquely theirs. now their music sounds like everything else the industry synthesizes to generate revenue. i hope in the long term they realize this and move forward with their creative visions, uninterrupted by the demands of a label that mishandles their art and their name. i was so excited to see how they would use the resources they'd be granted by a record contract, but i'm sad to see how their label now sees *them* as a resource, as a means to an end; not artists, not people, but a cheap image of "rebellion" that only a corporate structure could think is relatable.

Fantano I love your content! I know you probably don’t remember me, but we hooked up at the gay bar on October 17th, 2007

I feel like Fantano's Italian pride makes this red flannel slightly harder

Maneskin is the new Nickelback.

Why are Maneskin fans so sensitive regarding the review and comments section?! Fantano has slaughtered albums I like, and that’s cool with me it’s just his opinion at the end of the day.

I know it's bad bc even my friend, who's a Måneskin stan doesn't like it.

Glad Cal is back and you are letting him out of that closet in a very tasteful amount of time. It works. Still waiting on that second album

ottima recensione signor Melone, tuttavia non capisco come mai hai proseguito per 5 minuti buoni a spiegare perché la Meloni (che, guarda caso, ha il tuo stesso nome) sia idonea per salire al governo. vabbè, dai nonostante tutto complimenti e continua così il tuo lavoro!

They are literally Rome's own Greta Van Fleet, this score was to be expected. Still, Melon, you should reeeally check out other Italian acts (Iosonouncane, as others suggested is a good starting point)

It's kinda sad how Anthony can say how we're all depressed and it not be a hyperbole.

I can't describe it, but I always had a feeling Cal could speak fluent Italian. I don't know, it just makes sense to me.

Grazie Antonio per questa bellissima recensione

I can assure you a lot of your Italian fans were waiting for this score

Man, your review of Rush is like coming from a 5 years old kid that have never listened to a song. You make no difference

they have probably the biggest discrepancy between studio and live of any band i’ve ever seen. tremendous band to see play, unmemorable to stream

I agree that their lyrics are not the best, but I still find their songs to be pretty catchy and enjoyable. Personally i wanted more high energy songs in italian like "zitti e buoni" but overall I would say I'm satisfied with their work.

Every review is shitting on this. I just finally listened to the album and enjoyed it LOL. Yes…I heard The Loneliest on the radio in America heheh

I like how I automatically knew the rating just by the title

Måneskin fan here. Honestly I thought this album was pretty mid. Their previous album was fantastic, and I feel like they're at their best when they're making songs in Italian. My favorite songs off their new album are the ones in Italian. Il dono della vita is my favorite, and like you said la fine is good.

The nice thing about Maneskin is that sometimes you want to listen to a band where you’d definitely rail 75% of them

From the same creators of “Machine Gun Kelly is gonna save rock”, here it comes “Maneskin is gonna save rock”

I did NOT expect Cal Chuchesta to speak fluent Italian

As an Italian, I'd like to apologise for Måneskin.

gosh sorry, but your understanding of the Mark Chapman track is way off...the song does not focus solely on him, in fact he is only an example of how that kind of violence can manifest itself and how this can happen to anyone not only to famous people. Lyrics might be lower than your expectations in the "fun" tracks, but that brought you to dismiss other songs in such a way that it is disappointing. You did not even mention a track like Gasoline and the value of it, I mean a critique should be done at a different level and should be constructive. With the way you speak you are just creating a comfortable space for people to express hate in the comments and that is very sad. I hope my constructive opinion can be of help.

Gen Z usually avoids classic rock like the plague and they have a multitude of reasons to do so, but as a consequence they now think Maneskin, Greta Van Fleet and MGK are groundbreaking.

As an Italian, I'm just sad it ended this way. They had some potential.

I can see these guys touring with Greta Van Fleet at some point and then Boomers proclaiming that "rock music has been saved".

It's kinda sad because I like their aesthetic and stage presence. And although the songs on teatro d'ira weren't revolutionary by any standards I actually really enjoy the album, it's a fun listen. Now it just feels like they're trying to remake I Wanna Be Your slave over and over again

Italian here. Thought I'd share my perspective on this band. When it won Sanremo, I had liked Zitti e Buoni, for the most part. Lyrics were trite and cringe, which is sadly the standard for mainstream Italian music, but the music and vocals were pretty good. It was definitely nice to see these guys win Sanremo, rather than the interchangeable pop crap that usually wins. No masterpiece, but it was a fun change of pace for Italian music. Not a giant step, but something. After that, everything else they released I found annoying and disappointing. Lyrics never improved and the music got worse and worse. Beggin', especially, was such shit. Coraline was probably the only exception. It kind of kept my hopes up a little. Probably their best lyrics (though nothing amazing) and musically it was alright. But, boy, did they jump DEEP into the whole "we're selling ourselves and not our music" spyral. As their popularity has increased, the effort put into their music has steadily declined. MAMMAMIA is truly awful and such a transparent effort to 1) appeal to English markets who romanticize my country to a pathetic degree, without knowing much about it and 2) make Italians proud of their baby prodigies. Bottom line, I think the band has potential but they're squandering it more and more. And they don't seem INTENTIONED to make poignant music, they're just being stereotypical rockstars. Which might seem fine to some, but it depressed the fuck out of me because I though music had gone beyond that and because, once again, Italy is acting proud about doing something that the US literally did thousands of times before in the past 50 years. We are so behind on everything, when it comes to mainstream art production. It's embarassing.

"KOOL KIDS" literally sounds like a discount IDLES song I love it

Seriously, Im suprised of their success post-Eurovision. It’s something to be studied.

This is the most spot on review of this album I've ever heard. Cheers from Italy

Look Anthony, I know Rush isnt the same without the late Neil Peart, but giving them a 2 is a little harsh,no?

The singer of this band came to my birthday party when we were both 12 lol. Haven't spoken to him since tho

Thanks Anthony for the honest review. Here in Italy every critique and reviewer is a kiss asser for the band (with the excpetion of Enrico Silvestrin, to be fair. The man eventually got all the hate sadly). I really needed this

Måneskin fans when they see that the melon gave Rush a negative review: *MAMMA MIA*

As much as I enjoyed their previous stuff, especially Damiano's singing, this album just didn't do it for me. It feels like they switched from mostly Italian songs plus some English to mainly English songs to pander to the American market and something got lost in that transition...

As an italian I personally cannot understand all the hype that this band has outside my country,I always thought they were pretty lame.

Maneskin is indie rock music for Gen Zs who paint their nails and think they’re genderfluid

The radio has been gaslighting me about this band for two years; this was so satisfying to watch. I've thought they were awful from about the third time I had to hear their cover of a cover of a cover, and I have truly not understood the hype since then. I'll return to the crevasses with all of the weird rock bands that aren't commercially successful who are just doing it to make good music now

As an italian i can say that Cal Chuchesta at 2:57 completely nailed it. While Maneskin don't...

I personally liked this album. Even though there is some corniness and bad hooks, there is a wound that gets me interested in this album. So I get where you are coming from, but I think it was higher than a 2/10

You gave Rush a 2/10 but Rush's last album a 6/10? Hypocrisy at its finest, melon

If this album was To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar it would’ve gotten a ten

Anthony looks comprehensibly exhausted by the multiple listenings to this album. 😂

Holy shit. Pitchfork and needle derp gave an album the same score. Am I in a parallel universe?

I'm italian and I don't like them, so I'm not disagreeing on the video as a whole, but I'd just like to point out that I think that you kind of missed the point on the whole "mamma mia" thing: NOBODY in Italy seriously uses it as an expression, I think it was chosen as a title for a track mainly as a joke, and not because "they're italian" like you seem to point out.

This return of Cal has been most cromulent

I don't know why I keep watching your videos. All of them are so infuriating to me.

this makes me so happy. if we say ANYTHING bad about this band in Italy we immediately get cast as haters. they are so bad. not even gloria van fleet were this derivative and shallow

oh raga è inutile che vi lamentate il melone ha ragione

I would love to see you review more internationally recognized italian artists, but the more experimental and interesting like IOSONOUNCANE whose last album was crazy (IRA) and where the language barrier is non existent

i can almost never agree with your overall opinions on rap and rock albums, but it's always interesting to see how my taste compares to yours. I just love the energy of this band that gets carried all the way through this album, can't comment on the lyrics though and it never feels worth it lol.. It is weird that from 50 songs or whatever they said they wrote, no great lyricism caught your eye. I would just say they definitely wanted to cover different types of rock and have said themselves they didn't shoot for cohesion, saying that every song was the direction one of the members wanted to go in and they all just did it.. Hopefully they can improve on their sound in terms of really capturing a unique style or improving on past versions of rock instead of mimicking in your eyes, but I'll keep listening to them because they make me the most excited I've been for rock music in a while

Thank you for properly roasting the most overrated Italian band in a while.

I'm surprised he listened to this one enough times to be able to review it. This was a once and done for me.

I didn't hate it as much as you, Melon, but yeah, this album should've been better.

I liked a lot of their early singles, even if it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, I thought they still brought a lot of grit, rawness and energy to their music. I was happy to see a band from Italy finally make it in the states, and when I saw them live, they crushed it. But yeah, all that said, this album is not it. They didn’t have to rush into the English-speaking market like this. I still think they have potential, though. They just have to chill out and put a lot more thought into the next album.

You just have to love how the comment section is Italian Måneskin haters grasping for their few minutes of feeling validated by a foreigner 😄

As a long time Rush fan, I've got to say I'm pretty disappointed with this comeback album, "Maneskin". The new drummer is nowhere near an ample replacement for Neil Peart and while I appreciate Geddy Lee singing in his native Canadian on "La Fine", his singing and lyric writing has really deteriorated with age. Think they should have called it a day with Clockwork Angels...

I hate their cover of Beggin

Unpopular opinion: i genuinely like the band and this album

I know you probably hated Cal for awhile, but honestly I feel like you've struck the funniest balance of using him relatively recently

As an Italian, I can't stand Maneskin and all the people who are excusing their success because "at least it's not trap!, lol" or "you're just envious of their success!"... no. No, God, no. It's a terrible, childish, gimmicky band that makes look Machine Gun Kelly pop punk sound like Ligeti ffs... okay, I exaggerated here, but you get the point. It's nice to see someone criticizing them.

Very funny how Lil Yachty made a better rock album than the band who people kept saying would bring rock back to the mainstream.

The fact alone that Fantano actually did a video on this band is a success for them regardless of the mark. Greetings from Italy.

Say what you will, they’re really good performers live. I saw some glimpses at Lolapallozza and they were pretty cool in my opinion… Edit: I should clarify that I am not biggest fans of them, I tried listening to them lol. I am simply stating that they’re better live than recorded imo.

This band is like the heaviest thing anyone who listens to NPR regularly will listen to. Nothing about their sound is unique.

This album is very forgettable. I preferred the songs in Italian because they seemed to break the monotonous dance formula with a 2000s rock aesthetic. I felt like “If Not For You” was more of an emo ballad than a grunge one. What Fantano calls a “tight” rhythm section I would call a flavorless and zombie-like Pro Tools one. I would’ve given it a 3/5 because I’m not feeling mean, but chances are that time will see it slide to more of a 2/5 score.

If Måneskin has a million haters, I'm one of them If Måneskin has a hundred haters, I'm one of them If Måneskin has one hater, it's me If the world is for Måneskin, I'm against the world If Måneskin has no haters, I'm no longer alive

i’ve never understood it they’ve always been the most obvious manufactured garbage, dunno why people act like they’re so authentic and cool

They should have just stuck to being a heavier Italian Franz Ferdinand.

One of the most cringe bands I've heard in a long time.

Man I'm seeing tons of hater reviews like this one complaining about stupid details on the lyrics. You even dropped a few racist jokes and miss-sang some parts of the song... I don't know why the music critics are so upset with this band. They are not reinventing the wheel, fine... But they sound nice, aggressive and the lyrics are fun. What else do you want? You critics... move on, there's good music beyond bands who were formed before the year 2000.

Still don't understand why they're so successful

Thank you and I say this as an italian, I think we deserve better

Hi from Italy. I was wondering if you would even consider reviewing this record. These songs feel so simple and basic on all levels that it's hard to find anything compelling about any of them. I think the band's greatest asset is their enthusiastic, energetic vibe, especially when playing live. There's an exhilarating quality about their music that is extremely engaging, almost on a physical, neurological level. It works like a good drug, you don't have to like it or appreciate it to enjoy it, it just gets you excited and puts you in a good mood. I wouldn't call myself a fan of their music, but I'm definitely a fan of the band. I just love these kids, they're so young, creatively naïve yet extremely dedicated and smart at the same time. I agree that La Fine is the best song on this album. Damiano writes much better in Italian and all their songs written in Italian sound more complex and interesting overall. That is also why I like their past albums better. Yet I still get a kick out of them, no matter how lame their songs are LOL

It's obvious they wanted to play around with different sounds, work with a historically pop producer, and just make upbeat catchy music. They weren't trying to make anything serious or the like with this album, and I don't think Anthony realizes this. BLA BLA BLA is very punk, many love many hate it, but gasoline and la fine are wayy more their style with glaring bass and anger. You may hate the more popular generic route, but this wasn't supposed to be the resurgence of rock, rather a fun side project describing life since Eurovision. The next album, Teatro d'ira II (already completed) will have way more meaningful and clever songs. Hell even damiano said english songs weren't meant to be anything, rather just fun to play.

ok so. I enjoy Maneskin, like I don't mind them. I like seeing them around and they look like great fun live, but I don't listen to their music. Do I sing along and bob my head if their song comes up on the radio? Yes. Do I thing they are good musicians? Yeah, sure. Do I think they're worth my time and money and they offer something unique? Hell to the no. I'm sure their passion for music and what they do is one hundred percent genuine, hell I even used to hype them up when they were on the X Factor, at the time they felt like a breath of fresh air. Now that same air has been recycled in a 30 years old ac unit and it stinks. We need to open the windows. I don't know that becoming so famous so young was good for them. Fortunately they don't seem to be burned out just yet, an amazing feat for the two years they just had, but they are so devoid of meaning and content. They are beautiful rocking shells but everything they do is so derivative and unoriginal, they are to rock music what tik tok aesthetics are to 20th century subcultures. But I don't think it's worth it to actively hate on them either. They are a bunch of twenty years olds having the time of their lives, there's no harm in that. It's actually a pity their music isn't that good, otherwise they would truly be unstoppable. Also the "don't act like you don't know" at the end of Gossip's chorus is straight up ripped from Rihanna.

Idk why everyone is saying the album is so bad here. I REALLY liked the album. Obviously there were a few songs that were really bad like bla bla bla, mamamia, and kool kids but i thought the rest of the album was actually kind of great. I love time zone and baby said. There are a bunch of songs on there that are simply amazing. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t their original style. They literally said themselves they were experimenting.

Is it only me that i think baby said wasn't that bad?

I think Gen Z is just starved for rock music that we’ll take anything at this point. It just sucks all the bands that get handed to us are really shallow.

My opinion as an Italian and a music critic. To me, maneskin's promoters did a BAD job. They exalted the band WAY too much, treating them like the only band that can play this music, etc. This over-exposed the band too much, and news about the looks or acts made them overtalked too. As we have seen with The Darkness, this works for an album, but burns out the next one, regardless if it's any good, because the shock factor is no more there. Also, Maneskin has this weak side of being labeled as "the rock band built by the mainstream". With this album they should have convinced me that they are not that. I still have to listen to it, but apparently they didn't convince anybody.

Most of you want them to be bad. Their previous album was amazing. And there's still some real gems on this one. This is their first mostly English language. They've admitted they would never dare writing such nonsense lyrics in Italian. It's just fun.