One Liner: Pop mastermind churning out eighties inspired pop bangers and some filler
Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, new wave, alternative rock, synth-popHome: NYC
Poster Position: Line 3
Both Weekends
Both Weekends
Saturday at 6:15pm
T-Mobile Stage.
Thoughts: Last here in 2021, and here in 2014 before that. And here in the form of fun. before that. I'm on a run of folks who came to the Fest not that long ago. Which sometimes is a good thing, right? Like if a band is crushing it and releasing album after album of amazing stuff and we need to get them back to see it all unfold while its fresh, than that is rad. Some of these, it doesn't feel that fresh. But Bleachers just released a new album that is pretty good.
This is the project of Jack Antonoff. He came to the Fest in 2013 as fun., with that fantastic "We Are Young" song, and "Some Nights," and "Carry On." I saw that fun show and it was a good time. I kind of figured they were one hit wonder machines, but their hits were good and their cover of the Rolling Stones was way better than I would have expected. I took immense pleasure in knowing immediately that they were playing the Stones, while all of the stoned 14 year olds around me in the crowd looked confused. Suck it, teens. No, not like that. Stop.
But then that ended and he started Bleachers, and they came to ACL in 2014 in support of their new album Strange Desire. "I Wanna Get Better" was the jam off of that one. 192 million streams now.
An excellent pop jam. Highly danceable and sing-able and full of 80's synth joy. In addition to being a catchy tune, the video is funny too - "I don't know how to power clash" is a great line. "Rollercoaster" is a good tune off of that album as well. Has some Springsteen-ness to it and 218.6 million streams.
I read an article about him in Rolling Stone a few years back, because the dude has become THE MAN. He's buddies with Springsteen. He produces Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey (among many others). I mean, if you get to be the guy helping Taylor be the biggest star on the planet, then you're doing things right. And he apparently even had a band before fun, called Steel Train that did really well for itself before they disbanded in the early 2000's. Talented dude. And he plays most of the music in the studio, just using the rest of the band for when he is playing live.
He was raised in New Jersey, but commuted into New York for the Professional Children's School (which sounds terrifying). His older sister has become a fashion designer, and his younger sister died of brain cancer when she was 13, when Jack was a senior in high school. He has said that influenced his entire career, which is terribly sad.
Wikipedia says "Bleachers' pop music is heavily influenced by the late '80s, early '90s and the high school-based films of John Hughes while still using modern production techniques." That is fascinating - never would have guessed this was a John Hughes stan band.
Their second album was 2017's Gone Now. The hit on there was "Don't Take the Money," with 152.2 million streams.
I don't love it. Definitely still doing the 80's derivative thing, but something about the pacing of the vocals bugs me. Maebe Funke though! I have no clue what is going on there with the bride and her hardcore friend, but I know that this is an 80's music track that is unnecessary. Just give me the real 80's music.
He's won THIRTEEN Grammys, one for "We Are Young" with Fun, as well as Best New Artist with Fun; Album of the Year for his work on Taylor Swift's 1989; Best Rock Song for St. Vincent's "Masseduction"; Album of the Year for Swift's Folklore; Best Alternative Music Album for St. Vincent's Daddy's Home; Producer of the Year, non-classical for 2022, 2023, and 2024 (?!?!); Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for Swift's Midnights (while also nominated for Album of the Year for his production on the Lana Del Rey album that year); Record of the Year for SZA's "Luther"; and Best Rap Song for Kendrick Lamar's "TV OFF". That is honestly mind-boggling. His sound has become the sound of the decade, pretty much, from rap to rock to folky pop. Fascinatingly, he is given co-writing credit on many of the Kendrick songs from the new album. Did he really come up with the words to "Squabble Up"?
But this Gone Now album should not be winning any Grammys. Its not terrible, but also not very interesting to me. "Goodmorning" rips off the sound of Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Our House." "Goodbye" sounds like a Kanye b-side beat with some weak lyrics. Nope. Don't care for it. Although, like, listening to it again right now, it dawns on me that "All My Heroes" sounds like something that could have been on one of those two new TayTay albums, just slowed down and with more acoustic guitar.
The 2021 album is agonizingly called Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, and the cover of it makes me think of Jeff Buckley's Grace. Springsteen comes out to holler some gravelly lines about finding tomorrow with a girl like you on "Chinatown." "How Dare You Want More" has saxophone as though it is a Bruce song. "45" starts out sounding like an acoustic Foo Fighters song, but then old Jack starts doing his semi-yelp singing pattern again and you can tell its Bleachers. The album kind of ends with a whimper - I definitely prefer the fun 80's bouncing tunes to the sad sack introspective stuff. Like, "How Dare You Want More" is a fun, snappy little tune, and the "Stop Making This Hurt" track is the winning spot on the album. 29.1 million streams.
Its that bouncy piano riff backed up by the little horn squonks that make it seem like you just need to dance to this tune. Heavy dose of 80's joy right there (even as the lyrics point at a darker moment behind that joyful sound). I don't love the whole album, but there are some bright spots like that one in here.
Next, after a few years because the guy was freaking busy winning all the Grammys, you get an eponymous album, 2024's Bleachers. You know how everyone thinks that "Blinded by the Light" is a Springsteen song because it sounds so much like the Boss? Well, you can welcome "Modern Girl" on this album into that club of songs that so shamelessly rips off the Springsteen schtick that it is overwhelming. Saxophone and guitar riffs! Even steals the little xylophone hits. It's for sure the most popular track, so just check it out for yourself. 43.2 million streams.
I say all of that as though talking smack, and yet its a blast of a song. Rip off or not, but its a pure party locked into there. There are some other good rock bops on here as well, like "Tiny Moves" is fun too. But some of this album veers into the boring Taylor Swiftian world that Jack Antonoff has been foisting on the world for a while now, and I don't need any of that anymore. Like, the one with, I think, Lana Del Rey on it (no contributor is listed on Spotify), is like a mopey ripoff of "My Hometown" that I definitely don't need. The Vampire Weekend-ish autotuned "The Waiter" is also unneeded. It's too bad, this album has some good bits, but also some misses for sure.
There was another 2024 album in the midst of this that I never noticed. Looks like no one else did either, only two songs with more than a million streams and multiple with less than half a million. Wonder if it was like a b-sides collection or something? Ah, no, it was a re-recording of their debut album. That is a weird thing to do.
Anyway, they have released 2026's Everyone for Ten Minutes here recently, and it generally tracks the rest of the catalog (although there is really not a major bop on it). The start of "the van" sounds like he is about to release a rap track about growing up hard on the Jersey shore. Then it turns into a 70's groove. "you and forever" comes on like a weird remix of Do-Re-Mi. That is the top streamer with 9.3 million.
There is a lady who felt like she was doing that same sort of thing outside of my office window the other day, bending down on her patio to shave her dog's legs while wearing only a t-shirt and a thong. It is not a very happy seeming video or song.
I'll likely go watch this.
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