Grand Romantic

Last updated
Grand Romantic
Grand Romantic by Nate Ruess.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 16, 2015 (2015-06-16)
Genre
Length46:17
Label Fueled by Ramen
Producer Jeff Bhasker
Singles from Grand Romantic
  1. "Nothing Without Love"
    Released: February 23, 2015
  2. "AhHa"
    Released: April 26, 2015
  3. "Great Big Storm"
    Released: May 11, 2015
  4. "What This World Is Coming To"
    Released: June 1, 2015
  5. "Take It Back"
    Released: January 12, 2016

Grand Romantic is the debut studio album of Nate Ruess, lead vocalist from The Format and Fun. It was released on June 16, 2015, by Fueled by Ramen. The album was produced by Some Nights producer Jeff Bhasker. Following the hiatus of Fun, Ruess announced that he would be working on material for a solo project. [4]

Contents

The album received a generally positive reception, however critics noted that it was overly theatrical in terms of production, lyricism and vocal delivery. Grand Romantic debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200 and spawned four singles: "Nothing Without Love", "AhHa", "Great Big Storm" and "What This World Is Coming To".

Promotion

On June 10, the album was made available for streaming on the MTV website. [5] Later the same day, the "AhHa" visualizer video was released. [6]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 61/100 [7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AbsolutePunk 60% [8]
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Alternative Press Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]
The A.V. Club C [1]
New York Daily News Star empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Pitchfork 5.5/10 [3]
PopMatters Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]
Punknews.orgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [13]
Spin 4/10 [14]

Grand Romantic received positive reviews but music critics were divided over Ruess' musical vision in terms of production, lyrics and performance. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 61, based on 10 reviews. [7]

Awarding the album four of five stars, Jack Appleby of Alternative Press wrote that "Grand Romantic is proof-positive more Nate Ruess is always a good thing." [10] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone was positive towards the album's theatrical production and upbeat optimism, saying that, "Fun. co-producers Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie help Ruess create richly orchestrated bombast with the right amount of sonic wanderlust." [13] Matt Collar of AllMusic praised the collaboration of Ruess, Bhasker and Haynie for creating a project that embraces the concept of love, calling it "a fittingly grandiose, occasionally silly, passionately effusive, and ultimately very catchy album." [9]

Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club saw potential in the album's themes but said that it was brought down by subdued production and lyrical content with neither depth or conflict in its romantic tales, concluding that "Grand Romantic often feels so preoccupied with grandiose gestures that it loses sight of the little details that in the past have made Ruess’ music so memorable." [1] Alfred Soto of Spin criticized Ruess for his inability to tone down his singing style or deliver songs that stood out on the album. [14] Jim Farber of the New York Daily News compared the album negatively to Adam Lambert's The Original High saying that while both are musically similar, Lambert's voice performs campy theatrics better than Ruess' unsubtle delivery, saying that "[T]here's no roundness, or richness, to his tone. It's all hard angles, offering no cushion for the screech." [11]

Film

Alongside the release of this album, The Grand Romantic , a 28-minute short film starring Nate Ruess was also released. It features a number of songs from this album.

Track listing

Standard edition [15]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Grand Romantic (intro)" 0:43
2."AhHa"4:24
3."Nothing Without Love"
  • Bhasker
  • Haynie
  • Klinghoffer
  • Ruess
3:56
4."Take It Back"
  • Bhasker
  • Haynie
  • Ruess
4:24
5."You Light My Fire"
  • Bhasker
  • Haynie
  • Ruess
3:12
6."What This World Is Coming To" (featuring Beck)
4:03
7."Great Big Storm"
  • Bhasker
  • Haynie
  • Ruess
4:01
8."Moment"
  • Bhasker
  • Haynie
  • Ruess
4:13
9."It Only Gets Much Worse"4:18
10."Grand Romantic" Roger Manning 3:36
11."Harsh Light"
4:51
12."Brightside"
  • Bhasker
  • Haynie
  • Manning
  • Ruess
4:35
Total length:46:17

Personnel

Adapted from the Grand Romantic liner notes. [16]

Charts

Chart performance for Grand Romantic
Chart (2015)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [17] 61
Italian Albums (FIMI) [18] 94
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [19] 56
US Billboard 200 [20] 7

Related Research Articles

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Fun is an American pop rock band based in New York City. The band was formed by Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, and Jack Antonoff. Fun has released two albums: Aim and Ignite in August 2009 and Some Nights in February 2012.

Nate Ruess American singer-songwriter

Nathaniel Joseph Ruess is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer of the indie pop band Fun, and of the Format. As of 2015, he also performs as a solo musician.

Jeff Bhasker, also known as Billy Kraven and U.G.L.Y., is an American record producer, songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. He collaborated with rapper and producer Kanye West on the albums 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne, and Donda. He has won Grammy Awards for the songs "Run This Town" by Jay-Z, "All of the Lights" by Kanye West, "We Are Young" by Fun., and "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson. Bhasker received the 2016 Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for co-producing Mark Ronson's album Uptown Special and producing Nate Ruess's album Grand Romantic.

<i>Aim and Ignite</i> 2009 studio album by Fun

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<i>Some Nights</i> (album) 2012 studio album by fun.

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Some Nights (song) 2012 single by Fun

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Fun discography band discography

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References

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