Today marks the debut of Fun.’s new album entitled “Some Nights“. While it is technically the band’s second full-length studio album, this record feels more like an entry to the grand stage than that 2010 debut “Aim and Ignite“. While that record wasn’t completely indie, it didn’t have quite the “look at me” vibe that “Some Nights” clearly does.
You may recognize vocalist Nate Ruess from his time with The Format. With all due respect to that band and the handful of noteworthy tracks that they produced, that group didn’t seem to have the game needed to ascend the summit of Arizona-based bands that have made a national splash in the past 20-odd years.
While that Mount Rushmore of the Sonoran Desert features the likes of the Gin Blossoms and Jimmy Eat World, they may want to make some room at the top for this ambitious newcomer.
It is appropriate that on the 100th birthday of the Grand Canyon state, Fun.’s label decided to stream the entire album for free from the band’s website: www.ournameisfun.com. Happy Valentine’s Day indeed.
Three guys, three letters, and a declarative punctuation mark to display how they would have you describe their music.
This… is… Fun.
Period.
Let’s begin with:
THE GOOD
This album is chalk full of quickly-likable tracks. The first single, “We Are Young”, was deemed worthy of the Glee treatment earlier this season. As of the date of this writing, that video is the most-viewed entry on the official “GleeOnFox” YouTube channel, with just under 6 million plays. The Gleeks in my life have informed me that the song serves as a reconciliation anthem for a storyline that had erstwhile cracked the group’s unity and community.
Whether it’s the emotional connection transferred from those beloved characters coming together again, or something else, its hard to downplay the song’s real power.
My first taste of “We Are Young” came all the way back in September 2011, when an official audio track of the song was released with a haunting, single-shot video of a girl… on a bed… with an apple. It is just as bizarre and simple as it sounds. Well, it’s simple in the fact that it did not need an edit. But as you can see in her eyes, there is a lot more going on:
Is she having her heart broken for the first time? Is she losing her virginity? Does it even matter?
The song has the strength and vulnerability to match her performance, which is not easy to do.
Steady, pounding eighth-notes drive the chorus and give the listener a firm platform to stand, sing, and swoon along. Although Nate’s voice is difficult to mimic and impossible to duplicate, both Janelle Monae’s bridge and the “na na nah nah”s more than make up for that.
It’s a huge song, and worthy of the praise and attention that has and will continue to come its way.
It is safe to say that if you do not like “We Are Young”, then you will not be impressed by the rest of this Fun. album.
Lest you think me a complete and unobjective fanboy, lets take a look at:
THE BAD
If you’ve already listened to the album, you know what I’m going to say here…
It’s the autotuning.
The first time you here it in the title track (Some Nights), it is subtle and gentle like a kiss on the back of your neck. You go with it because you’re already nodding in agreement to the African drums and oohing along with the background choir. What’s one more piece of enhanced production in an song already filled with it, right?
But when the vocals for “It Gets Better” come out of the gate autotuned, and never let it go, you are less comfortable. You wonder if that that is reason why it is the weakest song on the album. Actually, that’s not true. You know that’s the reason.
By the time the 10th track “Stars” gets through its first verse without any autotuning, you might feel safe to exhale a sigh of relief. But two minutes in, you are abruptly brought right back to the fact that producer Jeff Bhasker must have something of an autotune fetish or perhaps an autotone disease.
It is jarring. It is noticeable.
It is like someone insisting that your ice-cold glass of Coke needs a packet of Splenda.
It’s just not quite right.
I will concede that it does become more tolerable after some repeat listens. It’s just a shame that it’s in there at all.
If I had a new Jackson Pollack to display, I wouldn’t ask you to drape your face with a translucent sheet to really enhance things. It’s a joke on par with the YouTube comments that encourage you to switch to 240p “for full effect”.
Nate’s voice is best experienced without a filter. Which leads me to:
THE AMAZING
With all respect for Jack and Andrew, this is Nate’s baby. Fun.’s songs are almost all conceived the same way. Nate writes some lyrics or sings some melodies, and the guys add onto it from there. By the time the song is birthed, everything has coalesced beautifully around Nate’s voice and lyrics.
Ah, those lyrics…
From the opening track:
There are some nights I hold on to every note I ever wrote
Some nights, I say “f*** it all” and stare at the calendar
Waiting for catastrophes, imagine when they scare me
Into changing whatever it is I am changing into…
and
There are some nights I wait for someone to save us
But I never look inward, try not to look upward
And some nights I pray a sign is gonna come to me
But usually, I’m just trying to get some sleep…
Right before he hits this note:
When an artist can convey emotion like Nate can with his voice, there isn’t much worth in talking about it. It just needs to be experienced.
*Update: Fun. released a full video of this song today. FYI, the f-bombs are not edited out.For me, the album’s triumph is its fourth track, “Carry On”.
Right on the heels of “We Are Young”, it begins softly and somberly. With just a few guitar strums and a bit of piano, it whispers to you that we are about to get serious…
The lyrics have a mysterious aim, using a fair mix of first and second-person singular language in the first verse, but mostly first-person singular in the second one.
Well I woke up to the sound of silence
The cars were cutting like knives in a fist fight
And I found you with a bottle of wine
Your head in the curtains
And heart like the fourth of July
Then its back to second-person throughout the chorus.
If you’re lost and alone
Or you’re sinking like a stone
Carry on
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground
Carry on
Is Nate telling me his own story, or preaching to me about how I might live mine?
But I like to think
I can cheat it all
To make up for the times I’ve been cheated on
And it’s nice to know
When I was left for dead
I was found and now I don’t roam these streets
I am not the ghost you want of me
While I’m trying to sort it all out, a ridiculous (in a good way) Brian May-esque guitar solo breaks loose and sends the song into the effin’ stratosphere. As my heart nears bursting, I realize that we have joined together and now have a first-person plural that binds the whole piece together. It had been there the whole time, but I was wont to notice it before.
It is “we”.
It is “us”.
We are one in the same.
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
So we’ll come
We will find our way home
And no one’s ever gonna stop us now…
