Music / Some Nights

What do I stand for? What do I stand for? Most nights, I don't know anymore...

Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun

— "We Are Young"

Some Nights is the second album by the American Indie Pop trio fun. It was released on February 21, 2012.

The album itself follows a loose concept about becoming a famous musician and the negative effects of it.

This album proved to be fun.'s most successful, with the Title Track, "Carry On" and "We Are Young" in particular proving to be very popular, the latter moreso after it was used in Glee.

Five singles were released with this album: "We Are Young", "Some Nights", "Carry On", "Why Am I The One" and "All Alone".

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Tracklist

1. "Some Nights (Intro)" (2:19)
2. "Some Nights" (4:36)
3. "We Are Young" (featuring Janelle Monáe) (4:10)
4. "Carry On" (4:38)
5. "It Gets Better" (3:36)
6. "Why Am I the One" (4:46)
7. "All Alone" (3:03)
8. "All Alright" (3:57)
9. "One Foot" (3:31)
10. "Stars" (6:52)
11. "Out on the Town" (Bonus Track) (4:21)

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If you're lost and alone, or sinking like a trope, carry oooo-o-o-o-on:

• Advertised Extra: Janelle Monáe is credited as a feature on fun.'s "We Are Young", but she sings only 4 lines that are almost obscured by the background vocals. She is more noticeably featured in the video, but she only appears for about 20 seconds.
• Album Intro Track: The intro for "Some Nights", true to its name, is an opera-style song that serves as a way of introducing the album and what it's about.
• Concept Album: Some Nights seems to be about the loneliness and misery of perpetual touring with little reward, the singer's regrets of leaving behind a possible Love Interest and missing everyone from his childhood, grieving his mother, and raging at his father.
  • Bittersweet Ending: In "Stars," the band finally makes it to the top and while there's still a conflicted attitude in the lyrics, they're mostly positive. But as the song goes on, the tone gets darker and darker and Ruess's voice is more and more heavily distorted to match, the implication being that celebrity life has not brought him the happiness he thought it would.
• Longest Song Goes Last: On the standard versions of "Some Nights", "Stars" comes last and is the longest at nearly 7 minutes (6:52).
• Lyrical Dissonance:
  • To wit, the verse in "We Are Young" reveals that this is about a guy and his date at a bar, whose friends have abandoned them to get high and they have lost a cell phone and the date's going to get drunk to forget about how the guy beat her but all's well because toniiiiiiight, we are young.
  • "Some Nights" is a lament about how it's Lonely at the Top, but the drum line is so dancey.
  • "Stars" is an upbeat and quirky song with extremely bleak lyrics about leaving everyone behind and being stuck alone with nobody to help you get through anything due to fame.
    Some nights I rule the world,
    With "Barlights" and "Pretty Girls",
    But most nights I stay straight and think about my mom,
    Oh God I miss her so much...
    • And later repeats the lines "No one's gonna save us" and "you're always holding on to stars" over and over again.
  • "All Alone" has a surprisingly cheery beat for a song about depression and loneliness.
• New Sound Album: Some Nights is less cheery and much more hip-hop influenced than Aim and Ignite.
• Precision F-Strike
  • Three examples, two in the intro and one in the actual song for the Title Track.
  Some nights, I say "fuck it all" and stare at the calender (Intro)
  Lately, I've been fucking crazy (Intro)
  Who the fuck wants to die alone, all dried up in the desert sun!? (Main song)
  • Another example occurs in "Out on the Town"
  So maybe I should put up a fight
  I'll call them back and borrow a box knife
  So I can learn to live with all the stupid shit I've been doing since ninety nine
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: Occurs in "One Foot".
• Wham Line: In "All Alright"
  Well I got the call soon as the day hit night
  As soon as the headlights lit up the Westside
  I stopped the car and came outside
  Cause I know that tone
  I remember the first time
  We wished upon parallel lines
  Waiting for a friend to call
  And say they're still alive

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You're always holding on to stars... You're always holding on to stars...