Wednesday Spotlight: fun.
 

When our parents were growing up, "pop" music was the norm. For the most part, it was really good too. Besides the obvious Beatles and Beach Boys catalogs, there were also bands like The Kinks and The Zombies making great strides in keeping that three letter term more refreshing than the processed and stale state some of us see it as today. I remember buying The Format's Dog Problems and remembering how it pulled me out of the general radio gutter. I might be connecting the dots too much seeing how frontman Nate Ruess is the only line between his former band and fun., but Some Nights is one of the best tastes of the genre I've heard in some time (no pun intended). Like most of what Ruess has written lyrically, Some Nights is straight-forward but slightly tongue-in-cheek enough to bleed a bit from the heart. This day and age, a lot of what passes for the genre of pop albums are a bunch of singles and filler to sell a lackluster release. There is no cohesive purpose to the whole. fun. and its members' respective projects are among the few who know how to write an album. Some Nights is that record that proves pop music doesn't have to be the black sheep the radio or majority of major records that sell deem it to be. Don't believe me? Read Drew's review here. Still don't believe me? Think of the majority of content I personally cover on this site - this is an opposite polar end that has grabbed me for a couple of days now and hasn't let go since my first listen.

You can also discuss the band's release in the general forum here.

Spotify. Rdio. iTunes.

They should be spotlight'd EVERY WEEK

i listened to Dog Problems today - and that was awesome.

The album is alright. Aim and Ignite and Dog Problems (yes I know its The Format) are still superior albums to me.

With that being said this band is extremely talented and deserve all the success they are seeing.

i just can't get over how good they are. i've already listened to this album at least ten times and i still go back for more.

Nice! AP hasn't talked about fun. in a long time.

the album's really good, but i think that there have been some really good pop releases in the past year from patrick stump, the cab, and the summer set, among others. i thought those three at least matched the level of quality set by fun. on some nights. people treat the word "pop" like it's a bad thing way too often.

This.

It's funny that you say it's a cohesive album, because Nate said his ideas were all over the place. Nate consciously wanted to write things that were more concise, instead of being drawn out.

Sounds like a collection of singles to me.

Which, in my opinion, is why the album works so well. Each song is different, each song showcases a different side of the band.

Can't say enough positive things about this album.

AP's album of 2012 I guess.

early in the year to call that.

The Kinks were never really a pop band.

Maybe. I'm just going off the last couple weeks. We'll see. It could be worse.

Yes they were. Maybe not as 'popular' as other British invasion bands - which I've always found to be one of the biggest travesties in rock n roll - but they most certainly wrote pop songs, and they wrote a lot of them.