FUN. play the Guvernment April 25. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Pablo Picasso once said that good taste is the enemy of good art, which could be the motto of NYC’s Fun. They’ve latched on to everything a modern indie band usually finds too cheeseball and made that their focus. Surprisingly, it’s immensely (and perversely) enjoyable.
Fun.’s debut album, Aim And Ignite, felt like a Frankenstein monster of Queen, Bay City Rollers and Weezer, which made it both too embarrassing to play for your cool friends and a highly addictive private experience. On Some Nights, though, the band’s obsession with Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy led them to enlist West’s co-producer, Jeff Bhasker, to bring some of hip-hop’s over-the-top opulence.
Between those modern touches and the clever move of planting the Janelle Monáe-assisted lead single We Are Young on Glee to capitalize on their musical theatre influences, Some Nights could be the breakthrough album that propels Fun. to the arenas where their lack of self-restraint will finally make sense.
Top track: Some Nights
