Release Date: February 21st, 2012
One way of framing fun.’s style in general is to note that the mid-20s persona in you is rolling their eyes, but the fourteen-year-old in yourself is singing along into a hairbrush. fun.’s work is clearly aimed at a teenage audience because of its morals and youthful presence as a band. It’ll resonate with people who are going through a tough time, especially in the perils of adolescence.
This is the difficult juxtaposition of themes surrounding fun.’s character. They reach terrific heights in their greatest moments but remain terribly juvenile in their lyrical work. It’s a difficult balance of maturity that is hard to get past when listening. Take note as you listen. This paradox is ridiculously prevalent.
Some Nights ignites into a film-like sequence with “Some Nights Intro,” telling a story with musical narrative, offering part one to the “Some Nights” interludes. The first is piano-driven while the second has heavy beats. Its intro finishes with applause while the second drives vocals to exciting heights within the first verse, inspiring and even concluding with a sexy guitar solo. Even within the first two songs, fun. entertains greatly.
The album quickly spins into the upbeat and poppy recognizable hit “We Are Young” which features Janelle Monáe. The baffling part about the song is Monáe never gets a solo or a verse. We’re not completely sure where she even fits into the song at all, but we’re not complaining.
There are a number of highlights as the album chugs onward. “Why Am I The One” especially radiates the pick-you-up-when-you’re-down vibes. Hooks like “Go on, go on, go on/like the worst is yet to come” reek of emotion that writhes in its own pain, which is the epitome of adolescence for most people. It may also be the most completely developed song on the album next to the solemn “All Alone.”
It’s not to say that you’re too old to enjoy fun. You can still have fun whilst listening to fun., but you might have to take it in moderation.
“It Gets Better” might sound unbearable to you, but this is pure joy and golden spinning reality for fun.’s fan base. They’re the Simple Plan of 2012. There’s no escaping their reign, so it might as well be embraced. Just know that some songs (i.e. “All Right” and “One Foot”) need to be taken with this grain of salt.
The band cites Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as part of their inspiration in putting together Some Nights. It’s prevalent only in their outro verse on final track “Stars” when the music trails off and leaves the layered vocal to close out the album. Otherwise, all work sounds completely original.
fun.’s anchor is their unprecedentedly unique sound. No other band chooses beats, rhythms or vocal riffs the way they do, and they’re lucky to have coined such a patented sound so early on in their careers.
But to be frank, at times vocalist Nate Ruess’s noises are, well, noisy. He often yells in order to get his point across, which is never fully necessary. They even don auto-tuning in parts, including closer track “Stars,” which is always a no-no.
Some Nights clocks in at only forty-five minutes but is jam packed with content and lyrical quality that is unique to the industry and today’s music scene. fun. defines up-and-coming meanwhile stapling indie pop to their vests and/or suspenders. They deserve a chance, even if just one, to be recognized in your music library–simply because they try so hard to get so far.
fun. – Some Nights tracklist:
- “Some Nights Intro”
- “Some Nights”
- “We Are Young” (feat. Janelle Monáe)
- “Carry On”
- “It Gets Better”
- “Why Am I the One”
- “All Alone”
- “All Right”
- “One Foot”
- “Stars”
- “Out on the Town” (Bonus Track)
