Everyone knows new music isn’t necessarily defined by its release date, but more by when it hits public consciousness. So even though Adam Young started Owl City in 2007, I’m arbitrarily announcing that his first full-length album, “Maybe I’m Dreaming” (2008) is the best new music of 2009. Maybe the best new music ever. For evidence: my last.fm account reports that Owl City has shot straight to my number one in less than three months, and Owl City’s also the unsigned artist with the 5th highest playcount on myspace.
But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. You don’t even know what Owl City is yet. Basically, a Minnesotan named Adam Young got bored and started messing aroung with a sequencer in his bedroom, and Owl City’s electronica-pop came out of it. He’s gone on a few small tours and is now lined up to tour with Relient K (think “Be My Escape”) and to play at the Sasquatch music festival. The only official bio I could find online reads: “If your household appliances wrote love songs while you were away on vacation, their cheerful blips and bleeps would pour out the windows, sweep through the neighborhood like candy-coated tidal waves, and you would return home to find crowds of people standing on your lawn, clapping and singing along to the happiest pop melodies imaginable. Welcome to Owl City.”
Young pairs his pitch-perfect voice with fun electronica beats and the end result is pretty much irresistable. He tends towards whimsical, sweeping lyrics that can be nonsensical and still hit home: ”If we could just be immobile for some time/and finally figure out the way we feel/about the missing puzzle pieces and cloudy question marks/they still look a bit surreal.” His most popular song, “Hello Seattle,” is a particular favorite of mine both because I am from Seattle and because I find it really soothing and uplifting. He writes a lot about water and various geographic locales, despite barely having traveled out of the Midwest before he started touring, and his creations are fun without being too peppy or poppy.
http://www.myspace.com/owlcity
Must download: On the Wing, Hello Seattle, I’ll Meet You There
For fans of: Relient K, Deas Vail, Guster, Switchfoot, Death Cab for Cutie, the Plain White T’s
Cool, man. Thanks for sharing. He also reminds me of Imogen Heap.
I need to post something here, because Bresland has issued an edict. ;D
But I love Owl City as well, so this might as well be my first comment.
That being said, I do find fault with the music for two main reasons:
1. The songs, while joyful – meaning that it’s a pleasure to have a large collection of them – are nevertheless repetitive. Now that the second full-length album has come out, I have to say that there is nothing to distinguish it from the first.
2. The lyrics are frequently nonsensical and peppered with non sequitors, e.g. “The silver sound is all around and the colors fall like snow/ The feeling of letting go, I guess we’ll never know.” Sometimes I feel like Young is just stringing together pretty phrases for the sake of sounding “deep.”
EVEN SO, I’d still recommend Owl City to anyone who likes an upbeat, whimsical, and/or electronic music. Something of an optimistic Postal Service-type sound.
Listening to these songs just makes me feel happy inside.