We're going off the beaten trail for a while, starting with the Indie-rock group aptly named "fun."
Formed in 2008 by former The Format front man Nate Ruess, the band, to date, has released only one album, Aim and Ignite. Based out of New York City, the mecca of Indie-rock, Ruess and fun. have thrived in their surroundings in terms of song writing.
Nate began his rocky music career in his home state of Arizona, starting The Format with a childhood friend in 2001. After getting yanked around by Warner Brothers/Atlantic records with their first album, Interventions + Lullabies, the band began to draw from the '60s/'70s pop and started work on what would be their final album together. The Atlantic brass did not like their straying into the Indie area of rock, and dropped them from their contract, which eventually led them to release Dog Problems on their own private label, The Vanity Label, in 2007.
fun. was a new beginning for Ruess, as his The Format years involved many personal problems that were reflected in his song writing. Aim and Ignite, however, brings out a more invigorated lead singer, writing upbeat and, well, fun songs. To date, only three singles from the album have been released, with none getting much airplay.
The most popular single on iTunes is All The Pretty Girls, with Nate showing off his always amazing voice, adding to the exciting and dance-worthy beat proposed in the song. The meaning of the song is hidden under the happy and almost funny lyrical lines. The song explains how a guy, having problems with his girlfriend, is out on the town on a Saturday night, and meets "all the pretty girls" wherever he goes. All he can think about is his girlfriend, and always talks about her, with good-looking girls hanging onto him. However, the end of the song indicates this happened over 30 years ago. "What's a boy to do?" the song asks, and what do we make of this? This could be explaining about how we need to get over the hard things, and therefore, allowing us to live and see all the pretty girls.
Ruess and the gang have been dormant until recently, when they collaborated with Panic! At The Disco and released the single, C'mon, with the intention of having the song on one or both of the band's albums in progress. However, it didn't make the cut for either.
Overall, fun. "brung" it when Nate said "let's do this." He, after many years of floundering like a fish out of water, has finally hit it out of the park. The theatrical sound to almost all the songs elevate the album to a height no Indie-rock album has seen, and, assuming they can hold this momentum, can really be successful and, perhaps, even break into the main stream line of music.
The Heilman Rating: 7/10 (simply because it isn't very popular)
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