Fun – Aim and Ignite

It's not uncommon to find yourself hoping, upon listening to the first track of a record, that the remaining songs are very different. To admit that I found that with Aim & Ignite, though, does not reflect badly on it at all. Its opening song, 'Be Calm', is a thoroughly enjoyable listen - my concern was that if the remaining songs were as dizzyingly but excitingly erratic in structure, I'd struggle to describe the album. fun. (yes, the peculiar spelling is correct), this New York trio, led by ex-The Format man Nate Ruess, almost had me stumped. Like a mini 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the song modulates between a series of disparate styles, with a warm string quartet struggling to keep up with the multiple vocalists, varying tempo, honking car horns, an inconsistent and confusing vocal melody, and a Beatles-esque brass section which turns up late to the track, followed by a histrionic rock part... bewildering is the word.As it transpires, the ironically-titled 'Be Calm' serves as an ideal microcosm of the album's remaining span. While fun.'s style can most generally be described as occasionally rock-inflected light pop, there's a significant variety of styles attempted, for a few of which 'Be Calm' serves as a preview. The most striking departure from the core sound, and also one of the strongest tracks, is 'The Gambler'. An ornate work of piano and strings, lyrically it's an exercise in the emotional futurism of 'When I'm Sixty-Four', one which is much closer to McCartney's original optimistic tone than the last song for which I drew such a comparison, Dan Mangan's 'Basket'.Elsewhere things are almost always as taut and intricate, forever weaving a wide variety of instruments, most often including strings, around Ruess' distinctive voice. The seven-minute closing track 'Take Your Time (Coming Home)' is arguably something of a minor mis-step, however - its meandering style makes it similar to the album's other bookend track, but it arguably outstays its welcome, dragging on too long to coalesce into the coherent statement the other tracks tend to be.On the basis of the confident debut that Aim & Ignite represents, fun. are quite aptly named. Some listeners may be turned off by Ruess' voice, others by a perception that these songs are a little too dependent on structure and technique, that they are a touch too arch, too synthetic. While these are not unreasonable concerns, there is a great many potential listeners for whom they will be negligible, and in the end this is a record which displays the care and effort with which it was made, and which is certainly worth a listen for fans of intelligent, pretty pop.