Audioholic Media

After months of lyric deciphering through various YouTube videos and the occasional unveiling of a demo (beginning with a sorta-muffled version of “Benson Hedges”) on their MySpace page, the anticipation of fun.’s debut album has mounted and paid off in the form of Aim and Ignite.

Aim and Ignite
Release Date: August 25th, via Nettwerk

01. Be Calm
02. Benson Hedges
03. All The Pretty Girls
04. I Wanna Be The One
05. At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)
06. Light A Roman Candle With Me
07. Walking The Dog
08. Barlights
09. The Gambler
10. Take Your Time (Coming Home)

Forming a modern day supergroup, Nate Ruess (formerly of The Format), Andrew Dost (formerly of Anathallo), and Jack Antonoff (of Steel Train) fuse their various talents to create a band with a name that couldn’t more appropriately define their sound. Aim and Ignite establishes a lighthearted and cheerful tone on first listen, but in true Nate Ruess form, a song’s lyrics can sometimes contradict its melody. In “Be Calm,” a full orchestra swells in an aggregation of emphatic melodies and uplifting chords behind Ruess’s catchy vocals while he sings about talking himself off a ledge. The last 60 seconds of “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used to Be)” bear an honesty not often explored by most artists. Despite the song’s breezy overtone, Ruess delivers an eloquent and emotionally apathetic gut punch in the song’s final lyrics when he states, “I’m not a prophet, but I’m here to profit” after proclaiming that he doesn’t fall in love, he just fakes it.

Ouch.

Ruess’s constant veracity and powerful vocals are well coupled with Jack Antonoff’s ability to keep cadence with the album’s every rise and fall and Andrew Dost’s capacity to create a rock sound with classical precision on the keys. Dost plays the piano beautifully without making a song sound too precious. Antonoff’s aptitude as a drummer is especially showcased on tracks like “Benson Hedges” where he alternates from light taps to heavy beats throughout, enhancing the song’s powerful sense of energy.

Nate Ruess’s last venture as a songwriter found him exploring his bitterness in the aftermath of a messy breakup, but Aim and Ignite focuses on his subsequent maturation as a person, a songwriter, and a vocalist. With their first try, fun. have created an album which has the ability to cater to most every listener, regardless of what it is each listener is looking for. Though each member of fun. has some experience in this specific line of work, a debut album is a debut album. And Aim and Ignite has just raised the bar for debut albums across the board.

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For more on fun., visit myspace.com/fun.