Has there been no thread in which we gasp loudly at the visual and sonic atrocities of Fun's "Some Nights"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQkBeOisNM0

one of the best songs of 2012 easy

yeah, come on, that's fucking brilliant. i'm hearing it for the first time, as much repelled as impressed, but it's p obviously a song for the ages.

<3 the nena quote

arcade fire + boston + billy joel?

video is bunk, but who cares. listening again.

it's the Arcade Fire if the Arcade Fire had been raised from birth by T'Pau and Alphaville. or maybe if they had been raised by Enya and Ah Ha. wait are fun from Finland?

I've often thought of this song as sounding like Queen's 39 + Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls + Kanye West's Lost in the World

I was going to say that I wish I could hear Boston or Arcade Fire in this. I was also going to say that I'm surprised people haven't heard this before but it's apparently only #22, not higher.

xpost

or maybe P.O.D. and Sade.

i guess this was a p big hit for them. weird. i've heard "we are young" plenty of times while out & about, but "some nights" is news to me.

i hear we are young on the radio all the time and janelle's inclusion still puzzles me for some reason. or maybe just the rap-pop mixed in with the nu-suspenders thing. its a confusing world. i don't hate though.

I realized what this reminds me of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu8JFZw3L6A

Not a compliment.

As with Natalie Imbruglia and Taylor Swift songs, I was a little surprised when I found out this wasn't by a Canadian band.

bleah, that glass tiger bullshit is way more limp. like stuffing your ears with warm bologna. fun at least seem as though they're engaged w/ the material.

Yeah, I'd take fun (and most other things) over the Glass Tiger if I had to choose. No question there.

I was going to say that I wish I could hear Boston or Arcade Fire in this. I was also going to say that I'm surprised people haven't heard this before but it's apparently only #22, not higher.

xpost

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, May 9, 2013 11:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It peaked at #3 last fall, it was everywhere and I have no problem with that - I really do dig this track, probably the best thing to come out of all the misbegotten recombinations of indie stomp-along sonics. Certainly wayyyyyy better than "We Are Young" which I would very happily never hear again. This one hits some of the same quarter-life-crisis stuff as "Time To Pretend" although not as well or as precisely - seems like these days everything has to be conveyed with wordless oh-oh parts, but it works here.

Also kind of nice to hear such an oddly-structured thing be such a big hit... I mean it really just kind of wanders along from part to part, there's a refrain and all that but seems like half the song is him casting about for the right syllable, the big autotune diva turn, and then the rambling coda when the guitar comes in which is a whole 'nother thing in itself ("for the best we didn't listen..")... it's not exactly Bohemian Rhapsody but it has a pretty good supply of hooks and ideas for its length.

I will concede that the video looks pretty awful, not least because these guys' clean-cut Rick Astley thing really doesn't work for me.

It peaked at #3 last fall

That makes more sense.

Rolling Stone named the song the 11th best song of 2012.[8]

oh cecilia. you're breakin my heart!

goddamn this is garbage.

I feel like this must be what the people who hate animal collective hear when they listen to animal collective.

i mostly hate animal collective (after sung tongs anyway). what i hear when i listen to them is not this.

yeah, I don't know I think AC are brilliant but I get the feeling that people who hate them hear poundy drums and dorky shouty white boys being overly emo while shamelessly ripping off classic '60s rock.

some nights rules, make a different thread now

this is like 40% owl city 30% arcade fire 20% lumineers 10% bruno mars 100% garbage

Love this album. Posting a best-of 2012 blurb I wrote on them.

<b>fun. - Some Nights (Fueled By Ramen)</b>
The first full-fledged "alternative rock" band to top the Hot 100 singles chart since, what? Owl City? Barenaked Ladies? Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories? Well, it certainly helps that fun. frontman Nate Ruess is no one's Bill Callahan, singing loud and proud like Freddie Mercury spending A Night at the Opera checking his Twitter feed. It also helps that Some Nights is cosmopolitan, Internet-era, all-caps poptimism turning the full-bore majesty of My Chemical Romance's Danger Days into witching-hour regrets; turning the expressionistic Auto-Tune of Kanye's "Runaway" into Broadway bombast, turning the once-languid pulse of Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" into a generational Homecoming rah-rah made for pushing Chevys out of planes in the middle of the Super Bowl. Finally, the album brings modern "indie" back into that weird, wonderful, new-sensational, late-'80s dramarama of INXS, Simply Red, and Psychedelic Furs. Listen without prejudice, party without irony, R.I.P. John Hughes.

Yeah, I would buy most of that. Might be something to unpack in why we seem to think of them as somehow inherently Generation Z Zeitgeisty - internet-era, Twitter feed, homecoming, etc. I mean, beyond "well, duh, if they're topping the charts they're tapping into something" - what is it that makes me hear this as really being "for" people currently around age 17-22? (I'm 31 and quite like the song but do feel like there's aspects of it that don't hit me in the gut the way they might if I were in a different place in my life, or born at a different time.)

I wish more singers sang as loudly as Ruess but his vocal timbre is gross gross gross. Plus, he looks like David Johansen designed by Abercrombie & Fitch.

Also: "Some Nights" sounds like Styx.

i'm hearing it for the first time

really? This got more airplay down here than "We Are Young."

Might be something to unpack in why we seem to think of them as somehow inherently Generation Z Zeitgeisty - internet-era, Twitter feed, homecoming, etc. I mean, beyond "well, duh, if they're topping the charts they're tapping into something" - what is it that makes me hear this as really being "for" people currently around age 17-22?

― Doctor Casino, Friday, May 10, 2013 7:19 AM (4 minutes ago)

earnest emotionalism
fearlessness born (seemingly) of naivete
little concern for / awareness of what a more jaded version of coolness forbids
that twitchy sugar-buzz INTENSITY that comes from hormones only kids get (e.g., the difference between the pixies and frank black)

Sure, but most of that seems like "high school" generally, right? The New Radicals hit most of those notes for me. Trying to figure out what's Twitter-ish in particular about them.

Yeah it's not like there's any hahstag type punchlines in this song.

just you wait.

Anyone like his part in Pink's recent #1?

oh, i figured the perceived twitter-ness was likely a product of what adults imagine "kids today" are into. cuz there's nothing that seems specifically internetty about either "we are young" or "some nights". haven't heard the rest of the album though...

maybe the confessional directness & mundanity of the language & observations? connection to friends and relations even in the midst of romantic abandon? those things are there, but they strike me more as quirks of authorial voice than distinct generational hallmarks.

They played this at a wedding reception I attended last weekend and it went over huge with the mostly late twenty-something crowd. Easily the biggest reaction of the night, even more than "Gangnam Style" or that Macklemore song about the ceiling.

seems kinda built for Glee to me. sort of a sub-genre itself these days. just like there is a gossip girl sub-genre and cell phone commercial sub-genre. so, basically, inspired by arcade fire with an eye on glee dollars.

This is way more tolerable than "We Are Young" but the guy's voice is still nails on chalkboard to me, and really hate the faux-"Cecilia" aspect of it

teachers at my kids' school did a version of we are young with their own lyrics at the school talent show. song and dance extravaganza.

Actually I kind of like this connection-to-friends-and-family angle. I'm reminded of those articles a while back about how much more connected today's college students are to their parents, thanks to technology... like the constant check-ins, all the I Fucking Love My Mom stuff etc.

Not that people from other generations don't love their moms! But it wouldn't be strange at all to me if today's earnest pop includes more room for friends and family for these reasons.

Put another way: does the wordless chantalong's dominance (see also, I dunno, ''Til The World Ends'') reflect a comfort with being a member of a crowd, a mass - that it's not scary the way it might be a other youth-culture moments of anxiety? The trick of course, if there's any weight to that at all, wd be to distinguish it from the Source Family/"teach the world to sing" model of yearning to be in a crowd, which pop can also negotiate quite well.

all the I Fucking Love My Mom

I made the mistake of reading this phrase too quickly.

rufus did one of these types of songs at the talent show so they are kid/family-friendly. campfire pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ95dDyBXbc

lowlight of the talent show for me was 15 kids singing death cab for cutie. highlight was little girl at keyboard doing jar full of hearts.

2 adele songs at the talent show. little kids singing rolling in the deep kinda funny.

and two girls did "home" of course. you cannot escape that song if you live where I live. going on 2 or 3 years now. whenever it came out. I think its the unofficial anthem of the county.

Ok, I'm not going to bother arguing about the song, but can anyone defend the "Gettysburg: The Low Budget Broadway Rock Musical" video?

Also kind of nice to hear such an oddly-structured thing be such a big hit... I mean it really just kind of wanders along from part to part, there's a refrain and all that but seems like half the song is him casting about for the right syllable, the big autotune diva turn, and then the rambling coda when the guitar comes in which is a whole 'nother thing in itself ("for the best we didn't listen..")... it's not exactly Bohemian Rhapsody but it has a pretty good supply of hooks and ideas for its length.

doc casino otm. also i like his part in the pink song but then i've loved both nate ruess projects (the format and fun.) and probably can't really think of this song with any distance

i also have a hard time thinking of these dudes as part of some internet zeitgeist bc lyrically i think the idea for some nights is to illuminate self-help cliches ("carry on," "one foot in front of the other," "it gets better) with a pain and misdirection that's highly specific. which ruess has basically been exploring since 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJtbCPgGERk

like

earnest emotionalism
fearlessness born (seemingly) of naivete
little concern for / awareness of what a more jaded version of coolness forbids
that twitchy sugar-buzz INTENSITY that comes from hormones only kids get

this is also crossover emo circa 2006

are those AllMusic categories

which i'm all for as long as its loose and fun and not snoozy like wilco or something.

that doesn't sound so great. i wish "alltomorrowspartiescore" was its own genre.

wilco isn't that bad

have never heard a wilco album

have you heard the song "she's a jar"? that's the main thing worth saving from their catalog.

listening now. dig the production and the odd turn of phrase, but it's not exactly grabbing me. think i might have dug it in my youth, like when i was mooning over stuff like the replacements' "skyway".

digdug

wilco are bringing foxygen to my neck of the woods. and os mutantes, of course.

http://solidsoundfestival.com/lineup/

A Gathering Of The White Peoples just didn't have the same ring as Solid Sound Festival.

I don't think these guys sound like they are influenced by Animal Collective or Arcade Fire. They sound like Wilson Phillips

lmao yes

xp i grew up on john waters and richard kern. it's in my blood.

have you ever watched glee? it does a lot more to celebrate the types of people who turn out to be people like john waters than most network tv shows about teens. so yeah, it would definitely be a different type of show if it romanticized the asshole bullies who do things like shoot up schools. I don't really want to see that show though and it has nothing to do with fucking john waters or richard kern.

I'm a little late here but Foster The People are literally the Antichrist and we should be murdering anyone who encourages them

but then they'd write a really catchy pop song about it

honestly, if the antichrist was real i'm pretty sure he'd make more interesting music than foster the people, much as i like "pumped up kicks."

it would definitely be a different type of show if it romanticized the asshole bullies who do things like shoot up schools. I don't really want to see that show though and it has nothing to do with fucking john waters or richard kern.

― wk, Saturday, May 11, 2013 2:20 PM (1 hour ago)

it's my impression that shooters tend to be the bullied more than the bullies, but tomato, tomato. we apparently part ways when it comes to bad taste.

These guys and their ilk remind me of Mike & the Mechanics, The Outfield, and Mister Mister.

OMG Mike and the Mechanics YES.

In fact if you turned the sound down on the Some Nights video and played The Living Years over the top it would gel perfectly.

it's really myopic imo to say that fun sounds like anco and not the last 7 years of pop music

grizzly bear yes. "some nights" sounds like a titus andronicus song.

I think people use "anco" as shorthand for "it sounds like it wants my attention really really badly".

As if anco came up with the idea of making the musical equivalent of being that guy at a function.

Starting to think I probably should check out Animal Collective beyond that one song that was in an ILM tracks poll a couple years back.

xpost i think people use anco as a shorthand for the faux naif thing people on here complain about.

I think people use "anco" as shorthand for "twaddle"

"some nights" sounds like a titus andronicus song.

― J0rdan S., Saturday, May 11, 2013 4:18 PM (39 minutes ago)

yeah, see, that makes sense to me. plus queen. queenus andronicus.

"I think people use "anco" as shorthand for "it sounds like it wants my attention really really badly"."

again, the effects of modern helicopter parenting. kids that can't be left alone or they get bored and always need a lot of attention.

"Starting to think I probably should check out Animal Collective beyond that one song that was in an ILM tracks poll a couple years back."

don't do it! I can give you 500 examples of better things to listen to!

if you haven't listened to "for reverend green" you should do that. it's the first song by them that really grabbed me. xpost

don't do that

do what you feel like.

i'm still pretty shocked by j0rd's revelation that The Ruesster is his style icon

I think I've seen sarge in pants/jeans once in three years

well in miami it's hard to dress like nate reuss

it;s been a while since you've endured our 58-degree winters

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh, Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for oh
Whoa oh oh (What do I stand for?)
Whoa oh oh (What do I stand for?)
INGWINYAMA INGWINYAMAMADA
INGWINYAMA INGWINYAMAMADA

Slow down, we've got time left to be lazy
All the kids have bloomed from babies into flowers in our eyes
We've got 50 good years left to spend out in the garden
I don't care to beg your pardon,
We should live, until we die

We were barely 18 when we'd crossed collective hearts
It was cold but it got warm, when you barely crossed my eye.
And then you turned, put out your hand,
And you asked me to dance
I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight

I swear when I grow up, I won't just buy you a rose
I will buy the flower shop, and you will never be lonely
Even if the sun stops waking up over the fields
I will not leave, I will not leave 'till it's our time
So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side

It was the winter of '86, and the fields had frozen over
So we moved to Arizona, to save our only son
And now he's turning into a man, although he thinks just like his mother
He believes we're all just lovers he sees hope in everyone

And even though she moved away
We always get calls from out daughter
She has eyes just like her father T
Hey are blue when skies are grey
And just like him she never stops
Never takes the day for granted
Works for everything that's handed to her
Never once complains

You think that I nearly lost you
When the doctors tried to take you away
But like the night you took my hand beside the fire
30 years ago, to this day
You swore you'd be here 'till we decide that it's our time
But it's not time, you've never quit in all your life
So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side
You're the love of my life, you know that I will never leave your side

You come home from work and you kiss me on the eye
You curse the dog, you say that I should never feed them what is ours
So we move out to the garden and look at everything we've grown
And now the kids are coming home
I'll set the table
You can make the fire

it's my impression that shooters tend to be the bullied more than the bullies,

I don't know about "tend to" but there's nothing more bullying really than bringing guns to school is there?
"the record now shows Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold hadn't been bullied — in fact, they had bragged in diaries about picking on freshmen and "fags." http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm

just seems gross to me that you would want some kind of violent fantasy out of a show that has done a lot to tackle gay bashing, bullying, and domestic violence.

still okay by this song, hate everything else i've seen this asshole involved in though

the single by the other fun.guy's side project is pretty dope imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5osPtE7kXI

I have little use for these guys

I like that single by the side project tho, u right

i still love this record. the outro of 'stars' :D

both bleachers songs i've heard are tight as hell

i'm a fun. and format fan though. less so steel train

new nate ruess song is awesome imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssVvkfcL9HI

Two-time Grammy award winning songwriter and frontman of the band fun., NATE RUESS teamed up again with ‘SOME NIGHTS’ collaborators Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie... The track includes backing vocals from Swedish muse, Lykke Li, along with guitar riffs from iconic Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer; and is accompanied by an epic music video directed by Anthony Mandler (fun, Jay Z, Lana Del Rey).

Guy plays on one of Red Hot Chilli Peppers' worst albums and is already considerred iconic?

I still hate We Are Young.

I really like this song now

yeah I like fun.