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Music

Watch the Video for Nate Ruess's First Solo Single Without fun., "I Am Nothing Without Love"

Overall, the video feels like it's from a nonexistent movie adaptation of a nonexistent Broadway musical about the life and times of Mark Wahlberg (in a good way).

Image via Wiki Commons

When fun. first came out, I was kind of "meh" about them—they sounded like all music, thrown in a blender on the "paté" setting. I still think that, but now I've come to realize that sounding like all music at once is actually super dope. Now that Some Nights is one of the biggest rock albums of the past five years and the band is consciously uncoupling to pursue various solo projects, we've learned what made them sound like they did. Where instrumentalist Jack Antonoff's work as Bleachers reveals a love of synthy heartland rock and an experimental streak, Ruess's first solo single, "I Am Nothing Without Love," is concerned with big-ass choruses and soaring pianos a la Queen (no Fetty Wap). It's the type of thing that you could imagine being played at the Super Bowl.

The track's video is heavy on subtext, light on context: pianos explode, Ruess kisses a girl underwater and then dances with her in a field, he emotes while being passed by a bunch of people on a walkway, etc. We are never told why he is doing these things, but we must trust that he is doing them for a reason, and presumably, he is doing them in part because he is nothing without love. Overall, the video feels like it's from a nonexistent movie adaptation of a nonexistent Broadway musical about the life and times of Mark Wahlberg (in a good way).