TIS: Fun. – Some Nights
I like Fun.’s latest song. It’s so convivial. What? No I didn’t just use a thesaurus to obtain a synonym for fun. No, you’re a thesaurus.
If you’re done harassing me over my word choices, allow me to present you with Fun.’s second single release, ‘Some Nights’:
It’s hard not to be lifted by the jocund (no, you shut up) melody and choral stylings of this song. Everyone likes a bit of a ‘whoah whoah’ refrain now and then. And yet, the overall theme of the song is bleak. For Fun.’s front man, Nate Ruess, a struggle for identity epitomises his life:
Oh Lord, I’m still not sure what I stand for oh
What do I stand for? What do I stand for?
Most nights, I don’t know anymore…
Ruess seems to indicate that he attributes this struggle, in part at least, to a lost relationship. Speculation may abound as to details, but it is clear that for Ruess, this struggle to understand who he is, what he stands for, what drives his actions, and where his purpose lies leads to a grey world indeed.
As the song breaks down, and Ruess decides to speak over the track a little (I’m a big fan of this method – see Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s awesomely smooth and not at all uncomfortable discussion at the end of the classic ‘The Girl is Mine‘). He comes to the conclusion that all he has ‘sold his soul’ for leaves him in a world without meaning or transcendent beauty:
No. When I see stars, when I see, when I see stars, that’s all they are.
A purposeless existence means that all the grandeur of the stars is just tinsel on a dead tree.
If this life is all there is, what a colourless existence we face as we trudge through the strife, aware that our every decision, our every love, relationship, connection, and action is all for nothing.
I thank God that we are created for purpose. He breathed life into us so we could glorify him in experiencing the vivid colour of life with him. Purpose is heaped upon you. In fact, the whole universe awaits the moment that you ultimately get to be with God (Romans 8:18-23). You don’t need to wonder what it is you stand for. You don’t need to worry about all you’ve done that’s led you to this point of bleakness. Through Jesus, we can be children of God; forgiven, given purpose, and destined for glory.
And that’s more than just boffo (really, I use these words all the time. I don’t even know how I could find Thesaurus.com).
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(You can catch the previous Truth in Sound here.)