Some Nights, the new album from Fun, shows how unimportant album reviews and blogs can be. A handful of tastemakers panned Some Nights, yet every Fun show on tour is selling out. The album is #1 on iTunes, and even as I ejected this CD from my car, Fun happened to be playing on the radio. Not just playing on the radio, but crossing over from rock radio to pop radio. Fun has found the same crossover market cornered by other Fueled By Ramen artists such as Fall Out Boy and Paramore.
So they sold out? The album is complete pop candy made for radio? What’s the deal with the electric drums, vocoder?
Wrong.
Who is Fun.? Fun is equal parts Jack Antonoff (Steel Train), Andrew Dost (Anathallo) and Nate Ruess (The Format).
If Some Nights sounds like anything, it sounds like Steel Train’s 2010 album Terrible Thrills Vol. 1. In fact, Fun songs in general sound a whole lot like Steel Train. And when you listen to Some Nights as a whole, it’s exactly what you should imagine an album from these three guys would sound like. For Christ sake, their band name is FUN. Why would anyone get their panties in a wad because one or two songs harken back to idols like Queen? It’s not like they’ve never done it before…”All The Pretty Girls” and “Benson Hedges” both start out with layered a cappella vocals. Why would anyone bemoan the fact that they use a vocoder in a couple of songs? How could they sell out if they sound like they’ve always sounded, but this time with a bit more pomp and flare?
Some Nights has thrown everyone for a loop. Big time hip hop producer Jeff Bhasker meets three indie rock stars to write an album, but it’s too hipster for the pop crowd and alienates their old indie crowd with auto tune, hip hop drum beats, and high flying vocals. Well, it alienated them as musicians too. It pushed them to somewhere they had never been before. Bhasker had never recorded guitar like Antonoff’s. Antonoff had never worked with someone like Bhasker on a project of this magnitude. Other than the fact that the album is so catchy, there is no reason Fun fans should like it first listen. It should alienate you just like it took them out of their comfort zone. But the truth is that this album is taking Fun to another level, a younger generation of fans. They are now the mainstream’s indie. They just opened up a world of doors, because it is doubtful that they will make an album like this again. No matter how bad the label may want them to.
Standout tracks: “Carry On” “Why Am I The One” “Out on the Town”
Rating 7.5/10
Enter to Win a Fun T-Shirt!
Error: Contact form not found.
Winner will be chosen at random. You’ll get to choose which shirt and what size. Winner will be chosen Friday March 2 and will have 48 hours to respond to the notification email.
