Album Review: Måneskin, Rush!

It’s been a spectacular few years for the genre-splicing Måneskin. The Rome quartet have gone from literally busking on the streets to sharing stages with the Stones. While most would probably take a five-minute kip on the nearest laurel bush after notching up six billion streams and 40 million albums sales, the former X Factor runners-up and Eurovision winners’ appetite for success has only grown stronger.

Featuring a fistful of songs co-written and produced by Swedish hit-maker Max Martin, Måneskin’s latest opus is loaded with hooks and humour. Mostly singing in English this time around, ass-less chaps loving frontman Damiano David’s performances are full of charm, with Iggy Pop’s B.F.F. delivering the relentlessly catchy choruses like his life depends on it (‘Kool Kids’).

The incendiary ‘Gasoline’ is a glorious, Putin-poking reminder that the band have plenty of substance to back up the style, and while some of the ballads don’t quite land (‘If Not For You’), tunes like the Tom Morello-featuring chart-buster, 'Gossip’, ensure that Rush! is their best yet.

Score: 7/10
Listen: 'Gasoline'

Out now via Sony Music.

Read more album reviews in the new issue of Hot Press, starring The Murder Capital and Sam Smith.