Music Review: Fun. "Carry On"

Fun.

Carry On

Album: Some Nights

Year: 2012

                Nate Ruess helps his girlfriend as she grieves in the moving  “Carry On.”

               A somber piano opens the single, setting a funereal tone. A sharp wail rouses him out his sleep. At first he thought his girlfriend was talking on the phone with somebody. However, the house is quiet. He pads over to the kitchen. There, she is sitting at the table with half empty bottle of wine, suppressing her sobs with the curtain hanging over the window. She’s heartbroken after finding out her father has terminal cancer. “Shit!, “ she exclaimed, throwing the curtain from her side, “I should’ve been a better daughter to him.” He tells her every relationship has its flaws, causing damage to it. He sits down next to her and rubs her back while she sobs. Both of his parents and siblings are still alive. He can’t even imagine what would happen if they were gone one day. However, he’s made enough mistakes among his family to know life is short. (“Well I woke up to the sound of silence/And cries were cutting like knives in a fist fight/And I found you with a bottle of wine/Your head in the curtains/And heart like the Fourth of July/You swore and said/"We are not/We are not shining stars"/This I know/I never said we are/Though I've never been through hell like that/I've closed enough windows to know you can never look back.”)

             In the chorus, he says she has to move on from the past. It doesn’t matter now. She has to think of the time she was left with him. (“If you're lost and alone/Or you're sinking like a stone/Carry on/May your past be the sound/Of your feet upon the ground/Carry on/Carry on, carry on.”)

            At about ten pm, he decides to meet some friends at a bar. Over drinks, they had a serious discussion about their mortality. Eventually, everyone they know will pass away. He spoke about when he was in his teens and no one gave him a break. They only saw him as a stereotype. The constant rejection hurt him. However, in his 20s, he met a great group of people who took him in and encouraged him. It made him whole. (“So I met up with some friends at the edge of the night/At a bar off 75/And we talked and talked about how our parents will die/All our neighbours and wives/But I like to think I can cheat it all/
To make up for the times I've been cheated on/And it's nice to know when I was left for dead/I was found and now I don't roam these streets/I am not the ghost you are to me.”)

            The chorus is sung again.

          He’s having a hard time watching her beat herself up over past mistakes. Around her, he has to be strong. He asks her if she would be okay making love to him tonight. He needs her to know she’s loved and she won’t have to worry about him leaving when it gets to be too much. (“Whoa/My head is on fire but my legs are fine/After all they are mine/Lay your clothes down on the floor/Close the door, hold the phone/Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us tonight.”)

             A bolstering guitar solo follows.

             He continues to say their lives are worth something, despite a person’s imperfections. Life will get better. It will take time, though. (“'Cause here we are/We are shining stars/We are invincible/We are who we are/On our darkest day/When we’re miles away/Sun will come/We will find our way home.”)

               The chorus is sung again.

             Ruess’ says “no one’s ever going to stop us tonight” six times to close the single.  

       Ruess’ compassionate, intuitive vocals are sheltering, choosing his words with care. He sees it as his responsibility to lift her up out of her slump. He gets her standing, even though she may be wobbly.

          The heartening “Carry On” pulls itself up from a bleak ballad and turns on the electricity, blowing out a couple fuses. Even at full power, the single still resonates.