As I sit down to write this, it is 7:35 on a Friday morning. Woof. If you need a visual image of what I may look like right now, its pretty similar to the Some Nights album cover… sitting lounged on a chair, in last night’s lace skirt and a hoodie, in taking as much caffeine as I can per gulp of my Starbucks. Mornings should not exist before 10 am. Some Nights is playing in the background and as I was originally gonna write about something completely different, I decided to write about something a little more “friday”. fun. came out in 2008, and surprisingly I hadn’t heard of them until about three weeks ago when my friend from work turned on their pirated album (sorry…) over the loudspeaker. My initial reaction after finding out he hadn’t chosen Keith Sweat (no offense to all you Sweat fans) was “Aaron, what the hell are we listening to?” The intro song to their album sounded like a musical. The only way I could describe what I was listening to was comparing it to a blend of Queen and the Little Mermaid. Yes, I compared fun. to an iconic band and a Disney children’s movie. (Truthfully, they’re a lot more than that, so don’t let my initial reaction scare you off.)
I bought their first CD “Aim and Ignite” three days later, because I am a music junkie, and because after giving them a chance I actually loved them. I throw around that word a lot when it comes to music, and one of my musician friends says I have the musical mind of a sponge (I like everything), but seriously, this is different. Their first CD topped the US Billboard charts at 71… not the best, but hey, at least they were on it. Their two hit singles from that record “All the Pretty Girls” and “At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)” are catchy to say the least. My favorite song from the album, and their first single as a group, “Benson Hedges” is quirky and original and its meaning- don’t try and make me something I’m not, accept me for who I am, is an idea that all of us can appreciate. Nate Ruess, the lead vocals for the group, does have the pipes much like Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury I mentioned earlier. Now add that amazing voice to the many instruments of the group: trumpets, guitars, pianos, synthesizers and even a flugelhorn- this group is unlike any I have heard.
In 2010, the group toured with Jack’s Mannequin, Paramore and Relient K, getting their name out there, and later that year they released the single “C’mon” featuring group Panic! at the Disco. 2011 was the year that they started getting more notoriety for their music, when they announced that their next single, “We Are Young”, featuring singer Janelle Monáe, was to be released. This song was then featured in an episode of the TV show Chuck, all you Gleeks out there probably heard it remade in Glee, and was finally featured in the Super Bowl XLVI commercial for Chevrolet’s Chevy Sonic also featuring the well-known band OK Go. Super Bowl face time is big time. Who wouldn’t want to listen to a song with the words ringing “So if by the time the bar closes/ And you feel like falling down/ I’ll carry you home/ Tonight/ We are Young/ So let’s set the world on fire/ We can burn brighter/ Than the sun”. Kind of endearing, kind of empowering, an anthem for 20-somethings all around.
The release of their 2012 album “Some Nights” has so far peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard charts, and number 1 on the US Alternative Billboard chart. It is one you need to buy. Frankly, that, and my venti iced sugar-free cinnamon dolce latte (Starbucks snob), are the only things getting me through this morning.
So go buy the album, or at least give it a shot. I need to go figure out what I am going to wear today, easily the hardest decision of my morning, every morning. Like fun. says, “I’ll put one foot in front of the other one” and go. Simply put.
-N
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