From the twinkling of piano keys in the intro to the synthesizer chords ending the bonus track, Fun.’s Some Nights is the album to turn on if you’re attempting productivity. According to the note Nate Ruess wrote for listeners on .Fun’s website, the album has as much to do with you as it does him.

Rarely does it seem that a sophomore album is a consistent progression from the artist, but .Fun pulls off a graceful transition from their debut to finding themselves as a band. The familiarity in the ballad of “We Are Young” does not root itself entirely in the Superbowl commercial. Recently, artists have been driving home the concept of maintaining an obvious youth. Knowledge of the musicians past would assist in understanding the nostalgic attachments, as Fun. is made up of men raised by music.

The most refreshing track on the album is perhaps my least favorite of them all. In an era where Skrillex is nominated for Grammys and DeadMau5 is performing alongside Foo Fighters, Fun. “gets it.” “Stars” is heavily synth-laden and one minute too long for my impatient attention span. While the highly auto-tuned vocals aren’t as soothing as most of Ruess’ addictive melodies, they are memorable and promise that his audience will never stop dancing. It appears that Fun. recognizes the urgency to adapt to the pop culture without losing themselves in the process.

Poppy vocals, catchy drum beats and arena worthy guitar ballads flood the album from beginning to end; a commonly phantom power that is authentic to the musicians gracing youthful rock bands like the Format, Steel Train and Anathallo. While I assume everyone, men and women alike, would be happy to have Ruess sing them to sleep, I think we could all agree that this album is hardly a lullaby. It is definitely more ideal for a situation in which you are lacking all motivation and hope to dance your way through the day.

“Tonight- we are young- so lets set the world on fire-we can go brighter than the sun.”

Fun.
Some Nights

Review by Christyn Trelow