New York based three-piece fun. are set to release their debut album ‘Aim & Ignite’ through Hassle Records on June 7th with exclusive bonus content. The album will be preceded by the single All the Pretty Girls on May 31st.

fun. is what happens when three extraordinarily talented musicians come together to create something altogether new and wonderful. Nate Ruess, late of The Format, has teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff (Steel Train), resulting in their ingenious debut, Aim And Ignite. The trio melds an array of diverse inspirations – spanning Broadway to The Beach Boys, “Nilsson Schmilsson’ to “Pinkerton” – into an irresistible collection of freewheeling pop songcraft.

With ‘Aim & Ignite’, fun have crafted a contemporary rethinking of classic 70s pop, where ornate arrangements and inspired orchestrations meet present-day rock ‘n’ roll. Take, for example, At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be), which suggests the heretofore unimagined sound of a Caribbean Queen, with Ruess belting extravagantly over a backdrop of festive horns and steel drums. Barlights – arranged by longtime Ruess fave Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Moog Cookbook) – is brash and brassy blue-eyed soul, while Dost’s Light A Roman Candle With Me is rollicking and Randy Newman-esque.

Songs like the album-opening Be Calm meld finely wrought chamber-pop orchestrations – all brass and strings and multi-tracked harmonies – with guitar-fueled rock ‘n’ roll, and tracks like Benson Hedges and single All The Pretty Girls are fit to burst with richly prolix lyricism and intricate melodic twists and turns, which provide plenty of room for Ruess’ distinctive vocals to soar.