Album review: The Rasmus – Weirdo

It’s been a 3 years since the latest The Rasmus album Rise, which was also the first album with their new guitarist Emppu Suhonen. Last week, on September 12, they released their new studio album Weirdo and I admit: I was hesitant at first. It’s been a while since I last really enjoyed one of their albums to the fullest. BUT the first single release from this album, Rest in Pieces, really gave me hope as it sounded more like their older, a bit rockier stuff. The other singles couldn’t convince me as much, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Little spoiler: I loved it from the first time listening – which makes Weirdo the best The Rasmus album for me personally since Black Roses in 2008, if not even since Hide From The Sun in 2005.

The album’s opener is Creatures of Chaos, which was one of the singles they released. Not the strongest song on the album, if you ask me, but it sets a mood. By now I have grown kinda fond of the song, but I still think it’s not the strongest opener.

Generally speaking, almost all songs that had been released before the album release are found at the beginning of the album. Creatures of Chaos is followed by Break These Chains, then by Rest in Pieces. Only Love is a Bitch comes a bit later on the album. So if you’ve followed the latest releases of the band, the beginning of the album is very familiar to you.

With Break These Chains there’s also the first track with a prominent feature. Niko Vilhelm of Blind Channel has a small vocal part, which I awaited very much. In the end I was a little disapointed because I expected more from a feature with Niko (he’s doing the screamy screams for Blind Channel – I wanted those screamy screams in a The Rasmus song!), also because I personally think that his voice and Lauri’s are a tiiiiny bit too close for the feature to truly stand out. Nevertheless I like the song, because it kind of gives me a similar vibe as some of the songs from Hide From The Sun and Dead Letters.

Same counts for Rest in Pieces, which was the first single they released from this album – and which also includes a Blind Channel feature, as the song was mixed (and produced?) by Alex Mattson. For me personally, the release back then felt like The Rasmus found back to their glorious days in the early 2000s, which made them popular in Germany – and it kinda felt like this might be connected to Alex Mattson, who I assume grew up with the exact same The Rasmus sound as I did, despite being a few years younger. I truly love the vibe of the song, I like singing along to this and it’s already one of my favourite tracks on this album.

Dead Ringer is the first new song on this album and it sets quite a mood. At this point I personally thought „Yes, this is heavier than the last ones!“ The latest The Rasmus albums felt a little too soft, too pop-ish for me. And I feel like they now returned to a bit more rock, more guitars – and I’m all here for it.

With Weirdo featuring Lee Jennings of The Funeral Portrait, the album includes a beautiful rock-ballad. And in this cases I feel like the feature actually does something for the song, as their voices are kinda different and compliment each other. I am excited to find out if they’ll perform the song together on stage on tour, as The Funeral Portrait are the special guests for the European shows of the Weirdo tour. Also I feel like I am repeating myself, but the vibe of Hide From The Sun and Dead Letters is back. And I love that, because those were definitely my fave The Rasmus albums (together with Into).

In Banksy, which is a song that easily gets stuck in your head and that I just vibe to, there’s a female vocal part and I’d be thankful if anybody who already has a physical copy of the album could enlighten me if it is mentioned in the credits. I can’t find anything about it in the credits on TIDAL and I’m honestly wondering if that’s Emppu. It’s such a cool part! By now, this song might be my second favourite on the album because it is so damn catchy.

Love is a Bitch was their last single release. I’m not a super big fan of this one, although it’s also kinda catchy, but in the wrong way for me personally. Still an interesting song and I can imagine that I might fall for it when hearing it live.

You Want it All is another ballad and I know I am annoying by now, but it reminds me of … yes. It kinda has a similar vibe as songs like Don’t Let Go. At least in the chorus. Somehow, for me personally, chorus and verses don’t go together super well. I’m a big fan of the chorus, but don’t like the verses very much, melody-wise. But yeah, all in all this sounds like a typical The Rasmus-ballad, but old-school. I think.

My relationship to Bad Things is a little difficult. I am still trying to bring the catchy sound together with the topic of stalking/toxic relationships. While the lyrics, in a certain sense, is low-key threatening, the sound is so uplifting. And that somehow makes it a strong song in my personal opinion. Partly it reminds me a little of Jezebel, sound-wise. There are certain similarities. It’s catchy and it feels like it shouldn’t be. While writing this, I’m starting to love this song.

The final song on the album is I’m Coming For You, and it’s another ballad-like song. This one is more on the pop-side, I’m not a super big fan of it to be honest, but it makes a good closing. And judged by the lyrics I could imagine that it’s a very personal song.

All in all, I can only repeat my words from the beginning: For me personally, Weirdo is the best The Rasmus album since at least 2008. I didn’t have high expectations, I was positively surprised and I am really looking forward to their upcoming tour now. While I kept ignoring most of the latest albums of The Rasmus, I will definitely keep listening to Weirdo for a while longer.