Boisterous absurdity: fun., Aim and Ignite.

Melding together clarinets summoned straight from chamber-pop, lyrical ironies last dribbled from Pete Wentz' diamond-encrusted Bic biros and a relentlessly boisterous buoyancy and desire to "have a good time", every last one of Aim and Ignite's ten overtly orchestrated tracks cements fun. as, first and foremost, an beguiling, if minorly bland proposition. Associated with emo pop stalwart label Fueled By Ramen and emerging from the intrinsically dingy, yet infinitely endearing alleys and fire hydrants of New York City, two largely forgotten entities set against the DIY ethic currently enveloping every free-thinking squatter of Williamsburg, fun. shouldn't really exist in this day and age. Yet here we are, envisaging picturesque prom slow dances, and fancifully frolics in the fields of Reading's Richfield Avenue as if it's 2005 and Panic! At The Disco are filling up half of NME's ink-spludged grease paper.

As aching accordions and Moulin Rouge heartbreak strings arise from the opening seconds of Be Calm, all preconceptions leap into the Hudson, without a single lingering preoccupation of Panic!'s premature demise. More theatrical than most Broadway productions, Nate Ruess, formerly of The Format's high octane elasticised vocals flicker between disparagingly obnoxious and devastatingly serene, owing more than a falsetto flail to Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan. All The Pretty Girls makes Mika's kaleidoscopic paint-by-numbers daydream pop sound like Joni Mitchell, At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be) weds steel drums with a pseudo-calypso chorus about as genuine as Pete Burns' lavish lips and Walking The Dog recalls the college rock tendencies of Wheatus' cheapest shots rattling along to We Are Scientists' tremolo trickery. Yet what with daytime mainstream music exposure sailing down the mutually exclusive slurry chutes of emo pop (You Me At Six, Paramore, Boys Like Girls) and date rape R'n'B (Tinie Tempah, Iyaz, N-Dubz), pop's in need of a little revelation and whilst fun. may not make many waves beyond the lands of ranked iTunes downloads bought by baying prepubescents, Lloyd Webber would almost certainly be up for a collaborative effort...