months of anticipation, song after song slowly being leaked, and a tour with manchester orchestra have all culminated with the long-awaited project from nate ruess (the format), andrew dost (anathallo), and jack antonoff (steel train), or collectively: fun. all the musical tendencies from each member’s respective band are in play, most notably the elaborate orchestrations and sparkling melodies of the format’s masterwork dog problems. but rest assured, fun’s aim and ignite is on a wholly different level than any of the bandmembers’ previous work: it’s much more ambitious and grandiose and ultimately utterly disarming.

review after the jump.

– sunbear

Artist: fun
Album: Aim and Ignite
Record Label: Nettwerk
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Admittedly, I was skeptical at first. There was the dubious band name, the pastel artwork; the fact that three years earlier, The Format released their magnum opus and conclusive book-end to their career, Dog Problems. But in the years following the demise of his previous band, Nate Ruess collected some talented musicians, took the ornate musical experiences accrued from the aforementioned album and composed a compelling, rousing album so musically inclined it’d be worthy of the stage.

Opening Aim and Ignite with a near whisper over staccato strings, Ruess croons a minor melody before urgently accelerating into breakneck speeds with his quick-fire delivery; the lush instrumentation almost having to play catch up before the song culminates at its dramatically furious crescendo, only gaining momentum as it tears on as one of the most impressive intros of any album in of recent memory, perfectly setting the tone for the rest of the album.

The elaborate orchestration of Aim and Ignite is unanimously the focal point of the album, with an atypical array of instrumentation: strings, harpsichord, theremin, steel drums, and horns just to name a fraction of the dynamic score emitted from these adroitly adept musicians. Fortuitously, fun. wear their influences on their sleeves: the opening vocal harmonies of “Benson Hedges” recall Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”, the minor-key strings of “Be Calm” alluding to The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and the majority of the album owing much to the latter’s Sgt. Pepper’s. And while Panic at the Disco’s blatant aping of Sgt. Pepper’s sounded like snot-nosed youngsters discovering their parents’ baby-boomer records, fun. sounds as if these disparate influences were inherited through age and experience, perfectly evoking but never impersonating the whimsical nature of The Beatles.

And then there’s fun’s signature and star of the show: Nate Ruess’s voice, a palpable force capable of such vocal acrobatics he’d have given Freddie Mercury a run for his money: from the near inaccessible high notes of “Be Calm”, to the gospel stylings of “Barlights” and his charismatic bellowing of the chorus of “Benson Hedges”, Ruess covers much ground with one of the most effervescent voices to come from the pop world.

Still there are still moments of pure cheese (the “ooh ahhs” of “Light a Roman Candle with Me” and the Don Henley “Boys of Summer” nod in “Walking the Dog” come to mind) though they hardly derail the freewheeling, sunny nature of the album: a perfect compliment to the summer. Aim and Ignite’s strengths lie in its ability to pack so much emotion and orchestration into a single song, aggrandizing it to it’s near breaking-point, but never becoming overindulgent. Ruess and company have crafted an irreverently cheerful album that showcases the expansive, multifaceted musical arrangements of a band as passionate about their music as they are talented.

Grade: A

fun on myspace

preview songs from aim & ignite:

fun. – be calm

fun. – all the pretty girls

– sunbear