It appears bizarre that Måneskin frontman Damiano David’s debut solo album would land on Eurovision weekend, provided that the previous Italian victors have achieved so properly to flee and thrive exterior of the shadow of the cheese-romp music contest. Since their victory in 2021, the band have received love from the likes of Iggy Pop and Tom Morello and arenas filled with followers which have most likely by no means heard the phrases “douze factors!”
Proving himself another time, right here stands David free from any of the rock’n’roll tropes that discovered him fame – and almost ruined him. “In the previous few years, we labored so much and I used to be beginning to lose the main target… I used to be mainly making myself sad, and I used to be doing fairly good at it,” he informed NME concerning the journey of “slicing out all the surplus” that led to this solo enterprise.
The identical rehab for extra might be stated for the music too. Certain, ‘Humorous Little Fears’ is big in scale and melodrama (what else did you anticipate?), however it’s nonetheless a document freed from distractions and laser-focused on straight-up pop bangers.
Opener ‘Voices’ meets the pomp with the private as he tries to outrun his demons on an actual stadium-rattler akin to that ‘Beggin’ cowl he did so properly, whereas ‘Subsequent Summer time’ has sufficient echoes of ABBA to make it a heartache epic. From the Lennon-y piano of ‘Sick Of Myself’ to the shameless summer time indie-pop of ‘Tango’ to the star-reaching orchestral grace of ‘Mars’ and the Killers-y Americana street anthem of ‘The First Time’, it’s a set that’s assured in squaring as much as fears and all fairly tastefully measured.
That features some visitor turns with Suki Waterhouse lending silky vocals to the “lighters up” earworm ‘The Bruise’ and viral sensation D4vd jumps on the candy old-school waltz of ‘Tangerine’. Subtlety is the order of the day on the elegiac electro lullaby nearer ‘Solitude (No One Understands Me)’ as David poetically cuts to the existential core of the document: “I’ve received a humorous worry of flying, it’s not the peak or the possibility of possibly dying / It’s discovering out the Earth was flat and discovering out all people right here was mendacity.”
For his soul-baring, private aptitude and discovering his personal musical accent away from the juggernaut that made him, you’d be forgiven for evaluating this to a Harry Types transfer. Regardless of bassist Victoria De Angelis having fun with a sideline as a techno artist, David and the band preserve that former NME cowl stars Måneskin are at the moment “in coaching to get again completely different, higher and more durable”. We’d miss just a little little bit of glam-rock madness right here, however ‘Humorous Little Fears’ is an aesthetic pop assertion from an artist simply comfy in their very own pores and skin. As David gives on ‘Solitude’: “Nobody understands me, however I do”.
Particulars
- Report Label: Sony Music Italy/Artista
- Launch date: Could 16, 2025
