The day I turned 16, I pulled open my locker to pick up my textbooks for the afternoon and found what remains one of the best gifts I've ever gotten: handfuls of candy, confetti strewn across my binders, and a handmade card wishing me a happy birthday and inviting me to an All-American Rejects concert a few weeks later -- my very first. (Shout-out here to my excellent friend Jane, her mom for buying the tickets, and her dad for driving us to and from Starland Ballroom.) I wore my most flattering t-shirt and a green zip-up hoodie that proved far too warm once we got inside; rookie mistake. A very tall stranger graciously propped little me up from behind for the duration of the show and served as a fine anchor in the sea of over-enthusiastic flailing teenagers, most of whom were jealous that my friends and I were nearly close enough to the stage for AAR lead singer Tyson Ritter to sweat on us, because what teenage girl didn't have that dream? (Actually, we were more Nick Wheeler girls, but no one says no to the band's lead singer.)
AAR were great, of course, and my adolescent, pop-punk-loving heart couldn't have dreamt up a better set of opening acts: The Starting Line, Gym Class Heroes, and some band we'd never heard of called The Format, whose incredible lead singer is now better known as Nate Ruess, frontman of Fun., one-third responsible for "We Are Young (ft. Janelle Monáe)." I've seen him three times in concert, twice with The Format and once with Fun, each time in dingy suburban venues that could have fit plenty more people; now he sings to massive crowds at international music festivals that I can't afford to go to. I've loved his music for a long time, I still do now, and I'm sure I'll continue to follow wherever it goes next (despite one friend's claim that Nate has already sold out), but it's not just mine anymore. Hipster-joke all you want, but everyone has something special they've lost the same way before.
In the hierarchy of Fun band members, I'd easily give Andrew Dost the #2 spot after Nate. When I saw Fun in Pittsburgh, Andrew hung around after the show, when he signed my copy of Aim and Ignite, complimented my fake mustache, and posed for a picture with me, my friend Ashley, and her fake mustache. His previous band, Anathallo, was excellent, he has a weird sense of humor, and he wrote a silly musical about Christopher Columbus that recognizes what a not-great guy he was, in song. Andrew Dost is great, photo evidence below:
I always relegated Jack Antonoff to the third and final spot in the Fun hierarchy, not even by default, but because I actively disliked his last band's music. In fact, I think I actually turned down an invite to see them live at one point? Also, he's dating Lena Dunham, so nahhh. And I never understood his haircut.
All of this is to say that Jack's solo project, Bleachers, came completely out of the blue for me. I approached it skeptically, and as mean as it sounds, I was almost disappointed by how quickly "I Wanna Get Better" hooked me. It's the obvious choice for a first single off the album, Strange Desire, another danceable anthem with a refrain made for shout-singing; what it's missing in Jack's not-quite-Nate-Ruess-quality voice, it makes up for with kitschy, '80s-style production. It's not as good as Fun, but it's fun enough, and a fair contender for the 2014 Song of the Summer, if anyone's still searching around for one this late in July. When music critics start hyping it and every Top 40 radio station is playing it, though, remember that you heard it from me first.
Bonus: I'm not kidding about how '80s throwback the entire album is. (Edit: No wonder. Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode and Erasure produced it.) This is the only other track available on YouTube that didn't make me want to immediately don a pair of legwarmers and pull my hair into a side ponytail with a neon scrunchie: