''Grand Romantic'' is the debut studio album of

Nate Ruess Nate Ruess is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known as the founder and lead singer of the indie pop band Fun, and of The Format. As of 2015, he also performs as a solo musician. Early life Ruess was born the second child of Larry ...

, lead vocalist from

The Format The Format is an American indie rock band formed by Nate Ruess and Sam Means. Their style can be considered a mixture of indie, alternative, punk and folk music, with elements of 1960s and 1970s pop music. Though Means and Ruess are the foremost ...

and Fun. It was released on June 16, 2015, by

Fueled by Ramen Fueled by Ramen LLC is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by 300 Elektra Entertainment. The label, founded in Gainesville, Florida in 1996, is now based in New York City. History John Janick conceived of the l ...

. The album was produced by '' Some Nights'' producer

Jeff Bhasker Jeff Bhasker (born March 4, 1974) is an American record producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He was awarded the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year in 2016 and nominated in 2013. An accomplished producer, he ...

. Following the hiatus of Fun, Ruess announced that he would be working on material for a solo project. The album received a generally positive reception, however critics noted that it was overly theatrical in terms of production, lyricism and vocal delivery. ''Grand Romantic'' debuted at number 7 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and spawned four singles: " Nothing Without Love", "AhHa", "Great Big Storm" and "What This World Is Coming To".

Promotion

On June 10, the album was made available for streaming on the MTV website. Later the same day, the "AhHa" visualizer video was released.

Critical reception

''Grand Romantic'' received positive reviews but music critics were divided over Ruess' musical vision in terms of production, lyrics and performance. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 61, based on 10 reviews. Awarding the album four of five stars, Jack Appleby of ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...

'' wrote that "''Grand Romantic'' is proof-positive more Nate Ruess is always a good thing." Jon Dolan of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' was positive towards the album's theatrical production and upbeat optimism, saying that, "Fun. co-producers

and

Emile Haynie Emile Haynie (born July 13, 1980), often credited simply as Emile, is an American music producer from Buffalo, New York. His range of production includes alternative rock, hip hop, indie and pop music. Haynie has worked with several prominent ar ...

help Ruess create richly orchestrated bombast with the right amount of sonic wanderlust." Matt Collar of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

praised the collaboration of Ruess, Bhasker and Haynie for creating a project that embraces the concept of love, calling it "a fittingly grandiose, occasionally silly, passionately effusive, and ultimately very catchy album."

Annie Zaleski Annie Zaleski is an American music journalist and author. Career Zaleski is a regular writer for mainstream media outlets such as The A.V. Club and NPR Music, and a columnist at ''Salon''. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio where she has won fir ...

of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' saw potential in the album's themes but said that it was brought down by subdued production and lyrical content with neither depth or conflict in its romantic tales, concluding that "''Grand Romantic'' often feels so preoccupied with grandiose gestures that it loses sight of the little details that in the past have made Ruess’ music so memorable." Alfred Soto of '' Spin'' criticized Ruess for his inability to tone down his singing style or deliver songs that stood out on the album. Jim Farber of the '' New York Daily News'' compared the album negatively to

Adam Lambert Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...

's ''

The Original High ''The Original High'' is the third studio album by American singer Adam Lambert, released on June 12, 2015, by Warner Bros. Records. Its executive producers are Max Martin and Shellback, the duo responsible for co-writing and producing Lambert' ...

'' saying that while both are musically similar, Lambert's voice performs campy theatrics better than Ruess' unsubtle delivery, saying that " ere's no roundness, or richness, to his tone. It's all hard angles, offering no cushion for the screech."

Film

Alongside the release of this album, '' The Grand Romantic'', a 28-minute short film starring Nate Ruess was also released. It features a number of songs from this album.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Grand Romantic'' liner notes. *

John Janick John Janick is an American record executive. He is the chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. Janick has been named to Billboard’s Power 100 list every year since 2014 and was named Variety's Hitmakers Executive of the year in 2018 ...

– executive producer * Sam Means – art direction * Teresa Oaxaca – painting, sketching and photography

Charts

References

External links

''Grand Romantic''
at

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(streamed copy where licensed) {{Authority control 2015 debut albums Fueled by Ramen albums Albums produced by Jeff Bhasker Albums produced by Emile Haynie Nate Ruess albums