Some Nights

Never has such unadulterated glee, desire, and youthful exuberance been so perfectly filtered as it has on anthems like "We Are Young," "All Alone," or "Some Nights"; rarely has a pop vocalist come through such lavish instrumentation and prodigious production with the results Nate Ruess delivers. His voice reaches and stretches, always with enough plaintive sincerity and sparkling energy that it avoids saccharine pop purgatory with room to spare. Producer Jeff Bhasker (who produced Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) knows the meaning of the word "big," and precious few are the studio wizards who know exactly when to rein it in. Some Nights is an undeniably massive record, in all the good ways.