Fun., ‘Some Nights’ – Song Review

Music is awesome: It’s easy to forget this among the twitter slapfests and ugly breakups — but you’ll remember when a new track has you dancing around your room. It is to the songs that get us to scream in our cars, stomp on our floors, and lip sync on the subway that we owe the most. Fun.’s ‘Some Nights’ is one of those.

‘Some Nights’ has a peanut butter-chocolate ice cream level combination of influences. Queen, Michael Jackson and Paul Simon are three of the first to come to mind (though Passion Pit and other contemporary acts are there as well). This is as immediate as immediate gets, a tidal wave of Auto-Tuned gospel choir voices sending us awash in inspiration.

But it’s not all ‘go get ‘em,‘ for as he does throughout the album, frontman Nate Ruess spills his insecurities in the verses: “So this is it? I sold my soul for this?/ Washed my hands of that for this? /  I miss my mom and dad for this?” Ruess was a member of the Format, a band that gained an underground following in the last decade but drifted apart. We’re guessing the Format’s what’s he’s washed his hands of — and fun. is what he’s sold his soul for.

The dude’s reminding us of a certain other self-conscious and flamboyant superstar: Kanye West, whose ‘808s and Heartbreaks’ era Auto-Tune are all over this track and the rest of the album. But while Yeezy’s was all despondent robotics, Ruess’ anomie is animated, amping up into a Freddy Mercury-style introspection via projection. That’s what makes such a highly produced, even ornate track so accessible: We can’t help but sing along with Ruess when the vague fears he articulates are so much our own.

This is the power of pop music: Like a sung mantra, the ooh-oh-oohs here are a joyous confessional. Yes, some nights bands and couples break up, some nights we wish this all would end — and some nights we just can’t stop dancing.

Listen to fun.’s ‘Some Nights’

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