Some Nights by Fun was released in February 2012; The Lumineers about a month later. Yet, somehow I managed to remain oblivious to them until recently when they started popping up on a good many Best of 2012 lists and the like--enough of 'em that I decided I should hear what they sound like.
And, indeed, I now know that one of them is Album of the Year. I just can't decide which one.
The two records sound nothing alike. Fun are pop-rockers whose signature is massive vocal harmonies (think "Bohemian Rhapsody") over pounding drums, with everything else mixed deep into the background. Along with Queen, there are hints of Broadway show tunes and of the Beach Boys and...well, of lots and lots of other influences. They're electric, they're eclectic, they're in fact quite unique, and it all works thanks to catchy melodies and terrific singing by Nate Reuss and the whole band. They sound like they're having, er, fun, until you listen to the lyrics.
The Lumineers, meanwhile, are folkie-rockers, Americana artists, Appalachians, as acoustic as Fun is electric. And singer Wesley Schultz is as laconic as Reuss is loud and intense and showy. (Think Mumford & Sons, only better and, well, American.) The angst is right there on the surface.
The two bands could not sound more different and yet both build on a similar foundation, and that is simplicity. The Lumineers, of course, carry simplicity throughout. "Anyone who can play an instrument can play a Lumineers song," says multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites. Fun? Not so much. But both bands begin with short, simple, even minimalist, but catchy-as-hell vocal melodies. Fun layers the sound on top, creating an anthemic, arena-rock sound. (Credits for Some Nights include 55 musicians in addition to the 3 official band members, Reuss, Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost.)
The Lumineers just let the vocal lines unfold. In addition to the 3 official band members--Schultz, Fraites and multi-instrumentalist Neyla Pekarek--"their Friends" are credited with group vocals, hand claps and stomps on "The Big Parade."No orchestra, no chorus, just the pure, unvarnished truth.
But, again, the bands have all of those "Best of" lists in common, too, and on December 5 both were Grammy-nominated--Fun 6 times and the Lumineers twice. They'll square off in the category of Best New Artist, also against Alabama Shakes, Hunter Hayes and Frank Ocean. Both are up for Album of the Year awards, and here both could be winners. Fun is nominated in the general or overall category, where they face the Black Keys, Mumford, Ocean and Jack White. The Lumineers are in the Americana category along with the Avett Brothers, John Fulbright, Mumford and Bonnie Raitt.
(Wait a minute! Mumford & Sons was nominated in the Americana category? WTF? But I digress.)
Fun
The difference is that Fun's single "We Are Young" was nominated for Record, Song and Group Performance, while no individual song from the Lumineers was recognized. "We Are Young" spent 6 weeks atop the Billboard pop charts, while the 2nd single, "Some Nights," topped out at #3, also spending 6 weeks at that position. But let's be honest. "Some Nights" is a better song. "We Are Young" features a slower, some (OK, I) might say, ponderous, rhythm, whereas "Some Nights" soars.
But "Out on the Town" is the best song on Some Nights. It's a break-up song:
"I set all my regrets on fire/Cause I know I'll never take the time/To unpack my missteps/Or call all of our friends/I figured they would take your side.... I make the bed/just not that well/Your name comes up a lot/When I talk to my mom/Oh I think she can tell."
For a band named Fun, there's a lot of loneliness and angst and doubt and uncertainty and regret here, but it's buried deep beneath the jaunty rhythms and boisterous singing. They're just pretending that everything is "All Alright," but in reality, "I got nothin' left inside of my chest (but it's all alright)."In "Some Nights," Reuss sings "I still wake up, I still see your ghost." Then there's, "I feel so all alone/No one's gonna fix me when I'm broke."
But getting back to "Out on the Town," well, it's simpler--guitar, keyboards, vocal--with less bravado and more vulnerability, it's more human, more approachable, more like the Lumineers. Not so much veneer.
And yet, it's that veneer and that bravado that make Fun Fun. But a little break is nice, too.
The Lumineers
No bravado, no veneer, just the pure unvarnished truth. "Ho Hey" made #1 on the U.S. alt and rock charts (only #8 on the pop charts, where Fun lives.) The musical accompaniment sounds like just one guitar, or maybe there's a ukelele, too, here and there, plus the continuous chant of "Ho Hey Ho Hey...."
"(Ho) I don't think you're right for him/(Hey) Think of what it might have been."
On the second single, "Stubborn Love," Schultz sings, "She'll lie and steal and cheat, and beg you from her knees/Make you think she means it this time/She'll tear a hole in you, the one you can't repair/But I still love her I don't really care."
But while The Lumineers have charted 7 songs from their eponymous 1st LP, like Fun, they have yet to chart their very best tune, "The Big Parade." It's 5-and-a half minutes of jaunty, up-tempo folk-rock with hand claps and half-spoken lyrics, describing a "Big Parade" of failures--the political candidate, the fighter, the Catholic priest "in crisis, the rock 'n roll star with his one night stands: "All the girls with the room keys/They all know his words by heart/By heart and they all sing."
But now the rock 'n roll star breaks the cycle, finding truth and love and happiness (and success): "Lovely girl, won't you stay/Won't you stay, stay with me/All my life I was blind/I was blind, but now I see.... Oh my my, oh hey hey/Here she comes, my saving grace."
Amongst all the Appalachian angst, a ray of hope.
But in the end, only time will tell whose vocal melodies remain catchy and engaging longer, who stands the test of time--Fun, or the Lumineers? But, for now, both are just hopelessly engaging. One is the Record of the Year. It might be some time before I figure out which one.
No comments:
Post a Comment