Owl City – Ocean Eyes
As I checked the mail today I was excited to see that Stunt, the press company managing Owl City, had sent me a copy of Ocean Eyes. While it was an album that was certainly in line for a review, it’s always nice to get contacted for free stuff, so big thanks goes out there. And while I am obligated to do a review out of courtesy, this album is terrific in it’s own right, and I’m more than happy to write this. So with all the personal blogging out of the way, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
I first mentioned of Owl City when he released his sophmore album, Maybe I’m Dreaming. Since then he’s slowly garnered the attention of more and more fans, signing with Universal Republic early this year for the realease of Ocean Eyes. A quick glance through the tracklist and some might notice a couple of familiar titles, such as Saltwater Room and Hello Seattle. If you don’t already know about Owl City, he is essentially Adam Young, and has often been compared to The Postal Service and recently, Lights. While I don’t think the Lights comparison works very well, they both do promote a euphoric brand of synthpop which I think is a great alternative to the overly dramatic and overplayed themes that run the music world rampid.
Owl City hasn’t missed a beat as can be heard from the very first track, Cave In. Pretty standard benchmarks for Owl City, but music that’s a world above compared to some of the stuff that’s out there. The greatest aspect of Owl City is the amazing beats that are heard in each and every song. The array of synths and sounds can be best described as a rainbow for audiophiles. The beats are something out of a dream, very calming, euphoric and pleasant. This is a nice musical mood that Owl City has perfected, a sound that needs not the aggressive, or high energy performance of todays bands. Instead the rhythms give off a mellow, happy and elated sequence of feelings. The vocals also work very well with this ensemble of sounds. Mind you the vocals are also overly produced, which I think matches the overall theme of the music. That said, Cave In has one of the more hopeful and upbeat melodies on this album.
The other spectrum of Owl City comes from songs like Meteor Shower, which are obviously toned down. This track proves to be a lot more melodramatic, but it comes with the territory of the theme. While Owl City does have very creative lyrics, and he doesn’t normally dance around the familiar topics of love and romance, he happens to do so in this track. But worry not, Meteor Shower still shares an intimate and timless feeling. Boasting an incredibly sweet melody composed of piano and synths, mixed with the warming vocals, it’s a song that really hits home.
Ocean Eyes is full of intricate and creative songs. Obviously I already had the oppurtunity to enjoy tracks like The Saltwater Room, Hello Seattle, and On The Wing. But I also took a quick liking to the jingle-like rhythm of The Bird And The Worm, the exciting electronica behind Umbrella Beach and the sombre mood of Vanilla Twilight. While everything about Ocean Eyes desperately screams Owl City, from the heavy use of synths to the mellow vocals and mature lyrics, there is still a very nice mix of hits on this album.
Owl City is getting ready to head on tour starting Sept 9th, hitting Canadian hotspots Toronto and Vancouver. With a great album like Ocean Eyes to start the momentum, I expect Owl City to hit it fairly large by 2010. With comparisons to big ticket bands like The Postal Service, I see no reason why Adam Young cannot emulate that kind of success. A very good album, and a very interesting style, I thought he was good last year, and I think he’s fantastic this year.
Check out his Myspace for more info.
Tags: album
i love owl city. he gets no respect because he isnt a hipster but i think that is the charm, also owl city have some beautiful songs they have helped me through hard times