Review Summary: The greatest album of the most "Meh" band possible.
Talking about The Rasmus is a truly redundant task. Not because everything has been said about them, far from it, but because The Rasmus have cemented themselves into the public consciousness with one of the most underwhelming careers ever put to records after they hit it big with their international smash-hit In The Shadows from their album Dead Letters. Following this fun but very harmless rocker was quite frankly one of the most uninteresting yet succesfull string of gothy-pop-rock albums most people have come across in their entire life, safe from a few singles here and there. But what is often overlooked when talking about them is their early career, where the young musicians where still struggling to find their own style. In the process of this, they experimented with a lot of different musical ideas, and, I guess, by pure accident, released their best album in 1997. I present to you, Playboys.
Seeing how this is their second album, when this was recorded the band was in a serious identity crisis. Coming fresh off of their first album „Peep“, a funky but forgettable collection of rock-songs, they wanted to expand their style a bit by incorporating ideas from ska, punk, metal, rap, reggae and experimental rock. What sounds like a true hodge-podge on paper actually works pretty nice on record, playing off their greatest strength as a band: Running through multiple styles without losing their knack for a catchy chorus and somehow not sucking at it.
Like mentioned before, the album is diverse, opening with the fast-paced ska-punk track tinged with keyboards and scratches Playboys, crossing by horn-filled melancholic songs like Ice, shaking hands with electronic drumbeats on Wicked Moments, rocking out with heavier riffs on tracks like WellWell, grooving along a funky rhythm section on Sold, delivering a truly lush acoustic song with Jailer or burning one up on reggae-song Raggatip and ending on the strange yet somehow weirdly entrancing experimental song Panda.
As you can see, there should be at least one song that everyone should be able to enjoy on this record. This is also what hurts this album a lot, the band is trying to do too much at once, which will most likely scare at least a few people away, not to mention the true low point of this album, the truly horrifying rap-metal song Kola which hasn't aged well at all and will grate on your ears as soon as you listen to their singer Lauri Ylönen scream „And it's gonna be fun“ at the start of the track.
Instrumentally this album is very well done on every level. The rhythm section of Heiskanen on drums and Heinonen on bass is superbly tight and very versatile, making their almost chameleon-like work a highlight on every track, as much as Rantasalmi is a very catchy guitarist, although not very interesting on a technical standpoint. Ylönens voice however is one of the true weaknesses of this album, seeing how his voice is on his most whiny here, but also packs a great bunch of energy. Either you can tolerate it, or you will have to ignore it.
In conclusion, this album is a truly underrated late-nineties crossover/ska-punk gem coming out of Finland of all places. If you are into the early work of No Doubt, Sublime or 311, you will most likely find a very catchy and versatile album by one of the bands you would most likely not expect it from. There is basically no reason to not listen to this record, except if you hate Lauris voice with a passion, then you should probably stay away.
Recommended Tracks:
Playboys
Blue
Sophia
Sold
Jailer
