Label: Universal 2012
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
The Rasmus have grown up. Their new, self-titled album is their most mature album so far, and whether that is a good thing is entirely up to you. I'm not so sure about it. This album is full of sophisticated, polished pop that owes more to the likes of U2 or Coldplay than to the Rasmus of old.
When Lauri Ylönen sings that "I'm A Mess" in the first single of the album, I find it hard to believe. The song is anything but messy, it's almost clinically clean and non-offensive. It was the first song I heard from the album, and I wondered why such a bland song had been chosen as the first single. Having heard the rest of the album, I don't wonder anymore. It's certainly one of the more immediate songs.
I'm not saying that there aren't any traces of The Rasmus as we know it here. Most of the melodies are unmistakebly Rasmusesque (Rasmussian?), but throughout the album I get the feeling that the band is holding back. As if they're saying "We've got to be mature, we can not write those easy hit choruses anymore"...
The highlight of the album for me is the ethreal ballad "Save Me Once Again", which might just do the trick as a single, despite of what I wrote above. But to pick the third single... that's a challenge.
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