It's a classic case of a band's confusion in the realm of where they're headed. This is a musical group that clearly is talented; look at the brilliant modern pop classic "We Are Young" and the quirky, oddly paced, fun little number "One Foot". Unfortunately, this is a musical group that brings 'contrived' to a whole new level. It gets better, does it? Shut up.

This album is sadly the epitome of everything wrong with both 'indie' and pop music in 2012. It's just incredible that music has reached the point where even people who can legitimately sing very well have to use autotune to remain competitive on the radio. The band here are nothing more than bland background in order to launch Nate Ruess up into the heights of implied super-stardom. He struts through the songs acting like the king of the world, projecting his voice far into every facet of the mix - choruses are often completely filled with layers and layers of vocals at different pitches, as if Some Nights is Ruess' own audition tape for American Idol. All indie credibility is utterly quashed since their promotion on Glee, which is surely the death knell for any hipster. Also of note are the ridiculously weak lyrics; the previous album's charm and intelligent story telling has been replaced with "ooh-la-la's" and the constant re-iteration of the song title. Couple that with the grating use of digital pitch-shifting and you have something more akin to Katy Perry than Fun. In closing, Some Nights is an absurd follow-up to Aim and Ignite, and appears to be the transition into what will probably be something even more easily digestible in the future.… Expand

A lot of times one stops and thinks what the hell an artist or group of artist were thinking. How could they get it so wrong? Donâ

This album is the musical equivalent of Kurt Vonnegut deciding to start to write the Twilight series. Granted, Vonnegut died in 2007, but I'm pretty sure this band died in 2009, so the analogy works. What a sad follow-up to what was a solid album from top to bottom in Aim & Ignite. The listener is less encouraged to sing along in Some Nights, but rather grind their teeth as they are bombarded with gratuitous amounts of autotune and random electronic instruments, when the group has proven quite clearly they know how to make real music. It's an interesting dive into mainstream music for the lead singer, who formally was a part of The Format, which was named to make fun of the 'cookie cutter format' the music industry utilizes to create hits. Pot meet kettle.… Expand

This album was a disappointment; their debut album left fans with high expectations, hoping for the band to evolve and grow artistically. Not only did fun. let down fans, they also lessened the band as a talent overall and exalted Nate Ruess above the rest, displaying his talent (though this album does not do a very good job at it) beyond that of the other members. Though "Some Nights" has its moments, the use of auto-tune ruins most of the songs, the lyrics are unintelligent and simple in comparison to the band's true capabilities, and the repeated and monotonous melodies cause the album to fail.… Collapse

I created an account just to review this album. As a long time Format/Nate Ruess fan, I was pretty stoked when Fun formed and I thoroughly enjoyed 2009's Aim And Ignite. It was a departure from The Format, but still breaking new ground in terms of pop music. Then this album comes out.

What staggers me is Nate Ruess' complete disdain for what seems to be his tenure with The Format. In "Some Nights", there is no doubt that the line "Who the **** wants to die alone out in the desert sun" is a direct reference to a Format song called "On Your Porch", a sombre ballad from The Format's first debut album. It's almost as if he's trying to assure himself that a giant nosedive into the world of autotune, bombastic drum programming and huge multitrack layering is what Fun needs to be successful. It's a shame, because most of these kids will **** their heads at Aim and Ignite, but for those few who dig it, there's some great tunes to be found both on that album and previous works by Ruess and company. This album, ripe with paper thin metaphors about youth, provides a listenable arena in which Ruess can be his inner Freddie Mercury, but it often comes off as ironic and apathetic drowned in the confusingly biographical lyrics. Frankly speaking, I enjoyed the overal positive vibe of the first half of the record. It might not be lyrically copacetic, but the melodies and try-hard harmonies add flavour to otherwise bland songs. Suddenly, after "Carry On", it's as if the band needed to fatten out the record. I won't name names, but some of the songs near the last half of the album border on the completely forgettable. I will keep an eye on Fun, but if this is any indication of things to come, I may just be stuck listening to The Format if I want to enjoy the clever tones of Nate Ruess, and not some vocoded, auto tuned version of the same thing.… Expand