Album Review: Some Nights By Fun

Some Nights is the second studio album by American pop rock group, Fun.

Adrian Twumasi
The Riff
3 min readMar 12, 2021

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Cover art by Fun

Review

Band: Fun
Album: Some Nights
Released on February 21, 2012

Fun is a famous baroque pop and alternative rock band that has its roots in New York. The album focuses on the hypothesis of the redemptive force of rock and roll which is fundamental to the genre’s mystique.

The upbeat album centers around subjects of individual strength, love, and as well as apathy. They were able to maintain the charm and spectacle of their style while still making this album a unique one.

Track-by-track analysis

The first track, “Some Nights — Intro,” has that theatrical interludes of rhyme, background noises, and an array of instruments. It starts unobtrusively and consistently builds momentum for the entire album to take off. The piano, violins, drums, and even opera vocals in the background make this a superb symmetry of tumult and melody. This kind of energy and performance is strong throughout the tracks, which clearly expresses Fun’s true investment in their music.

“Some Nights” which is the next song on the album has stomping drums, upbeat rhythms, and enchanting tunes attained by falsetto and the vocal synthesizer. It emphasizes seclusion, vulnerability, and self-doubt that often comes with the difficult advancement of fulfilling one’s potential. The song’s chorus — “Some nights I stay up cashing in my bad luck; some nights I call it a draw!” highlights that.

Video provided to YouTube by Fun

Afterward, we listen to the first single and one of the most popular songs from Fun, “We Are Young”. It rampages along with exuberant tunes, underpinned, by military-strength percussion. In this tune, he talks about a young, immature, and reckless young man who is obviously in an unhealthy relationship with a girl. The tone of its youthful optimism with the clichéd but Empire State-sized chorus — “Set the world on fire, we can burn brighter than the sun” plunges triumphantly upward, and it gives the words that much extra oomph.

Video provided to YouTube by Fun

In “Carry On” it manages to come along with a teenage pop anthem and, with what sounds like accordions and acoustic guitar flutters. It then throws in a big choir and Slash-type howling solo for great measure. The lyrical content dwells on being able to keep moving on when times get tough.

Video provided to YouTube by Fun

“It Gets Better” and “All Alright” appear to be more alluring lyrically, which makes it musically weaker than the initial songs but sounds good.

“Why Am I The One” explores the violin’s versatility at the end and turns out to be, in my opinion, one of the most exciting and impressive themes on the album. Nate talks about being famous and having to leave his home and leave behind his loved ones.

“Stars” and “One Foot” closes the album with its recurring guitar tune with the latter aiming at large crowds and stadium concerts with its synth-oompah.

Final Takeaway

Conclusively, “Some Nights” is a great piece and comes with a positive light and hopeful tunes. Though it's heavily dependent on autotune, it’s hard to not like such catchy tunes and lyrics that are funny, sincere, and oddly moving.

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Adrian Twumasi
The Riff

This is a space to enlighten me and tell my story.