Review Summary: all alright
Without Fun, we would not know pop music as it is now. Gotye surely would not have reigned 2012, and Imagine Fagons or Mumford would never get airplay. It's because of Fun that indie music hits the top ten. Their sophomore album Some Nights was a decent one, but it looses steam toward the end.
Fun were influenced by Queen, and opener "Some Nights (Intro)" is a good example of this. Nate Ruess yells, "Oh my god!" in a Freddy Mercury influence style singing. It's short but sweet, and sounds like a Halloween song with the eerie background. Applause fades into the title track, the highlight of the album. It's pretentious, over-the-top and loud, but works. Around five minutes, it's Fun's Bohemian Rhapsody. "What do I stand for?" he cries, and his vocals are painful and believable.
Chart topper "We Are Young" is bland though, with a boring hook. Janelle Monae wastes a guest performance. "Carry On" contains cheesy lyrics and is rather vapid overall. The album falls farther as "It Gets Better" is full of too much vocoder and electro elements. By now, it seems that the album will sink.
But it rebounds. "Why am I The One" has a great vocal performance and the end where bits of the songs play is cool and innovative. "All Alone" is pretty pop-like, but the depressing lyrics make it worth the while. Another highlight is "All Alright". It's somber and depressing mood makes it one of the best songs on Some Nights.
But Fun lets us down again, as the album ends with a misfire. "One Foot" has annoying horns and synth, which makes it the worst song on the album. I skip this track all the time. "Stars" drags on for 7 minutes, and Ruess' autotuned voice really makes the song falter.
Though at the end "Out on the Town" makes up for the misfire. It's clever lyrics, and emotional vocals make it the second best song on the album. Some Nights starts out strong, gets weak in the middle, rebounds, then falters at the finish line. The bonus track doesn't count. It's a pretty decent album, lots of good tracks (plus the bonus), but the weak and bland tracks bring it down.
