I used to think that I didn't have any guilty pleasures when it came to music. When people asked me who my guilty pleasure band was, I could honestly say I didn't have one. Over the past few weeks I've realized that I have one.
Let's go back to the year 2005. It was my first year of college. I was introduced to one of my favorite bands, The Format. I listened to their first album non-stop for weeks. I bought a T-shirt.
2006 rolled around and they released their second album, Dog Problems. This album, oh man, this album changed the way I will listen to music forever. It still is my all time favorite album. I can listen to it today and enjoy it just as much as I did in 2006. My sister, all my friends, we all fell in love with the album. We all hurried to Best Buy to buy our own copies. I sat in my room for hours listening to it and reading the lyrics. I saw them live four times. I took my brother to his first show to see them. After that it was his favorite band.
Then in 2008 it all came crashing down like the Hindenburg. They broke up. With no explanation really, just a tiny blog post. I was devastated. My brother cried. No more music from Nate Ruess and Sam Means would ever be released.
But then just a few months after the break up I read that Nate was starting a new band called fun. (lower case with a period at the end, fun.) They released some pretty good demos. I even saw them live. Their first album 'Aim and Ignite' was released in 2009. I liked it a lot. It's a good album, but I didn't love it. I listened to it a lot the summer it came out, but never really came back to it.
This is where the guilty pleasure part comes in. . .
2012, earlier this year, I found out they would be releasing their second album, Some Nights. I wasn't too excited. I heard their single, which is pretty good, but really catchy. So catchy it was on Glee (throw up). They streamed their album on their website and I hated it. I vowed never to listen to it again. The single (which, if you noticed I still haven't mentioned by name) became the number one song in America, and the party anthem for douche bags every where.
I was done with fun. forever (haha, it rhymed unintentionally), until I heard them on All Songs Considered. My music critic hero (whom I've all ready mentioned), Bob Boilen talked about how much he loved the album. I gave it another listen. I liked about four songs, but still couldn't get past the artificial beats and auto-tune on the other six songs.
Two weeks ago I saw that Bonnaroo was streaming fun.'s set live on Youtube. I watched it. . . I liked it? Yeah,  I liked it. I put the album on again. I liked it. I still don't love it, but I can appreciate it for what it is.
I still have a hard time with the fake beats and auto-tune and I'm constantly looking for better acoustic versions on Youtube to convert to mp3's.
Is it a guilty pleasure? I don't even know anymore especially after writing this blog post and making it public to our many followers (we currently have zero followers). I guess I just can't give up on Nate Ruess. Damn you, Nate Ruess and your beautifully unique voice. I guess there's something to be said for being loyal after all these years, even if this new album is inspired by Kanye West.

*Note:
I'm sorry to everyone I made fun of for liking the album. I apologize to anyone who listened to my angry rants about how much it sucked.