New Music: Nate Ruess - "Nothing Without Love" [Full Audio / Review]
The question is: does Nate Ruess really need Fun.?
I thought recording music without Fun. would mean a new sound from lead vocalist Nate Ruess but it looks like he won't be needing to return to the three-piece indie-pop band after his first-time solo adventure because his solo music is sounding 100% Fun. already.
Just listen to his debut solo single "Nothing Without Love" if you don't believe me. The drum-heavy track was released today (Feb. 23) on iTunes and it is the first single from Nate Ruess' forthcoming debut solo album which will be arriving in US stores later in 2015 via Atlantic Records and Fueled by Ramen.
"Nothing Without Love" can actually be called “the song that broke Fun.”. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone where Nate discussed his solo stint, he declared that upon witnessing other Fun. members working on personal stuff during the band’s hiatus - Jack Antonoff formed Bleachers and Andrew Dost began producing for other artists – he also started to do stuff on his own. At one point he wrote this song titled "Nothing Without Love" that was inspired entirely about his life. He thought he would end up giving the song for Fun. to record for their next album, but suddenly he began to think: "if these other guys are doing their own thing, why can't I too?". So he kept "Nothing Without Love" in secrecy, not sharing any tiny news about it with Jack or Andrew, and talked with his label about going solo. They heard the song and green-lighted the project. Nate Ruess refused to give Fun. "Nothing Without Love" and this is why the Fun. hiatus will be longer that expected, or perhaps permanent now.
"Nothing Without Love" review
The production is very epic, drum-heavy and very Fun. The content of the song is super emotional ("I am nothing without love / I'm but a ship stuck in the sand”), it’s heartbreak-themed, and it's the perfect hymn that everyone without a relationship (or who recently had broken up) should have sung out loud in their rooms on Valentine's Day while crying a river.
The ‘Na na na hey, ooh oh’ bits are so anthem-ready that I already imagine a whole stadium singing along.
Summing up: Great vulnerable vocals by Nate Ruess as usual, epic production, super relatable theme, and again, "Nothing Without Love" sounds so Fun. that I don't think he will need to return to the band. What for, right? He's already obtained the same sound!