Fun, the latest project from Nate Ruess, the former frontman of The Format, has a weird issue with its debut album. More specifically, there is an inherent, stylistic flaw on almost every track on the disc.\nThe problem is that this indie-pop trio from New York does not seem to realize that focusing and relying on Ruess' vocal talent at almost every turn is not the best way to make Aim and Ignite ... well, fun. In much the same way that Beirut relies on Zach Condon or Queen relied on Freddy Mercury, Fun attempts to place Ruess' voice on display throughout the whole album. Unfortunately, Nate Ruess does not have enough range or talent to carry his band.\nIn his defense, Ruess does not have a terrible voice by any means. But, when Aim and Ignite starts demanding something other than Format-like vocals - which is fairly often - Ruess either makes an awkward mess of it ("Benson Hedges") or just narrowly avoids embarrassing himself ("Be Calm").\nLuckily, this core problem does not damage the album beyond all repair. There are tracks on Aim and Ignite that keep Ruess in his comfort zone, which - for all intents and purposes - he should not leave, while introducing new voices to cover the parts outside of Ruess' range. These winners are the Beatles-esque "Light a Roman Candle with Me," the choir-backed "Barlights" and a piano ballad known as "The Gambler." These tracks, however, are few and far between, making only a painfully small percentage of the 10-track Aim and Ignite actually worth listening to.\nBeyond vocal work, Fun's debut is very interesting in the sense that it uses a strange assortment of instruments between tracks. Although some of these come off as downright cheesy, like the steel drums in "At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)," little additions to the production like the use of castanets in "All the Pretty Girls (On A Saturday Night)" and eight-bit bleeps in the background of "Walking the Dog" are welcome and help to keep the album interesting. It is just too bad that the album focuses on Nate Ruess so much that there is rarely an opportunity where he shuts up enough to really enjoy it.\nIn terms of songwriting, Fun is nothing too special. All of the tracks on the disc seem to alternate between semi-novel takes on well-traveled subjects and homages to pre-existing songs. It is nothing to write home about, but there is nothing to really complain about either, which is quite an accomplishment, if you consider that this is Fun's first attempt to establish itself even though Ruess - vocal issues and all - is almost constantly singing through every song.\nSo, at the end of the day, Fun has released quite a lackluster album almost single-handedly because of Nate Ruess. When the issue for a band is that its frontman cannot do what the band wants to do - which, apparently, is to re-envision vocal-focused-pop reminiscent of the 1970s - I would consider that a pretty huge issue and promptly recommend Aim and Ignite to almost no one. But if you have a weird obsession with The Format, then you may be able find some sort of enjoyment in it.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
