(Atlantic)

Wednesday 23 May 2012

What is it with bands connected to Warner/Atlantic subsidiary label Fueled By Ramen and their obsession with inappropriately placed punctuation marks?

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alan morrison

We have had Panic! At The Disco and we now have fun. – the lower-cased, full-stopped New York City trio who've been catapulted into "sound of the summer" territory following their UK No 3/US No 1 single We Are Young.

This is pop music with an excess-all-areas pass. Fun.'s second album rewinds past Mika to go to the heart of Queen, as melodies strut ostentatiously and multi-tracked voices go into choral overdrive. Singer Nate Reuss treats Auto-Tune vocal distortion as an instrument in his flashy arsenal, a Kanye West device that reaches its zenith/nadir (depending on your view) on penultimate track Stars.It becomes more interesting when West's producer Jeff Bhasker chops up the stadium pomp with hip-hop beats, but the over-whelming sensation is of an album that wears the listener down with exorbitant style if musical substance is thin on the ground. When they're good, fun. Are 21st-century pop at its most euphoric but, at an album's length, such bombast has a price to pay.Fun., Some Nights

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(Atlantic)

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