I don't think I watched Eurovision the year these guys won
OWN MY MIND. First thought - I thought this was going to be much shittier but it's fine. The main bassline/guitar riff is very indie nightclub in 2007 in that it reminds me of Standing In The Way Of Control by The Gossip. Yeah, pretty good.
GOSSIP (feat. Tom Morello) - lyrical reference to 'The Gossip' can't be an accident. That sure is Tom Morello's guitar tone in there, I'm not going to complain about that either. 2 out of 2 for 'monodrone thought it was ok'
TIMEZONE - again, I was prepared for this to be a dull one when the first 30 seconds hadn't gone anywhere but there's been a solid steady build throughout the song which has got me. 3 out of 3.
BLA BLA BLA - A bad Hives song. 3 out of 4.
BABY SAID - It was at this point that I began find the singer slightly irritating but the rest of the gang are doing fine work even if they're ploughing a furrow from 15-20 years ago that I'm overly familiar with . That's how this all goes though isn't it, I mean there are nu metal bands again. Music trends almost always have an echo and there are far worse echoes than this doing the rounds (by which I categorically do
not mean the nu metal bands who are good). 4 out of 5.
GASOLINE - yeah, cool. Singer's got me back on board with the intensity change up in the lead up to the chorus, this is more interesting to me than his talkier stuff. Some very modern pop production in the chorus which sits better than I expected with the wobbly tone on the guitar solo. I really liked it, 5 out of 6.
FEEL - not into the la la la las. One thing I'm noticing on the album so far is that Maneskin do a great job of mixing things up in the middle 8 with some change in sound rather than shoving a straight guitar solo over the verse riff or whatever that a lazier band would do. 6 out of 7.
DON'T WANNA SLEEP - haven't mentioned the drums yet which is out of character. He's doing alright though, playing it straight for the most part but throwing in the occasional fill to show that he's probably capable of more when the situation requires it. Song's ok. 7 out of 8.
KOOL KIDS - this might just be me but there's something clunky and forced with the 'fucks' and 'shits'. I'm not against it on principle, just sounds jarring. Anyway, I guess this is their punk song so what are you gonna do, not swear a lot? Fuck off. Fuck you. Good tune. 8 out of 9.
IF NOT FOR YOU - there was bound to be a big ol' ballad somewhere in this mid-section of the album. Not my scene. 8 out of 10.
READ YOUR DIARY - Royal Blood. That's the band I've been grasping for as a comparison point for a lot of RUSH. Never got on board with them or this song though. 8 out of 11.
MARK CHAPMAN - presumably it's about the career of the
UK based sports broadcaster. The lyrics are in Italian and I'm not about to run them through a translator so I'll continue to believe this. I don't like it when the vocal melody and lead guitar are doing the same thing. Don't need it. Good energy in the back half, this could easily be a second rate Muse track from a later album I never listened to. Something of Drones or Simulation Theory. 9 out of 12.
LA FINE - Big Rock Song. Yep, cool. I guess this is the Italian section of the album, I can forgive them the 17 tracks if they were keen to split it up like this for the home crowd. 10 out of 13.
IL DONO DELLA VITA - a second ballad has hit the album. This one's better in a slightly overwrought Pearl Jam b-side style. Guitar solo rips. 11/14.
MAMMAMIA - it's funny to me that the most Italian phrase I can think of is best known as the title of a Swedish pop song. Into the final 3 songs which appear to be the big hitters all with well over 100,000,000 plays on Spotify. I get it. It's about doing weird sex things. Nothing annoying about it aside from the lyrics which I don't care about anywhere else so why would I here. 12/15.
SUPERMODEL - John Frusciante wants his Snow (Hey-Oh) guitar riff back (
not that he has a let to stand on with this issue). Boring song. 12/16.
THE LONELIEST - classic 'last song on the album' anthemic ballad. NOPE. 12/17.
To sum up: I went into this fully believing I was going to hate it based on a couple of things I'd heard from their earlier work and thinking it was going to be very Imagine Dragons-inspired but I rarely disliked any of it, never mind hating it, so I'm very pleasantly surprised. Not likely to go back to it any time soon but if it's on while I'm around I'll be broadly happy.
