Owl City

I live again!

Don't know if I should make an explanation of the disappearance but that dastardly real life business was in the way. In short, I was living by itinerary after itinerary in the summer. Crossed the Pacific Ocean. Crossed the American continent. Crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Coughed out trails of carbon monoxides behind my deep, gray carbon footprints. And now, I am back in the good old lowland/flatland desert of Arizona again.

Hello!

While I have a couple of good music to review down my belt, I feel like I must kick start the season with a detour from what I originally planned. You ought to bear this with with me--none of this (this return) would have happened if I had not partied so hard this weekend.

Apparently the entire Mormon community is now a fan of Owl City. I kid you not. I worked so hard this weekend to become a party girl and here I am. Figuring out what is the deal with Owl City. If it weren't for one of the parties I would not have been prompted to return (ha) with this review.



In one of the electro indie communities that I belong to, I heard Owl City and the hype of here and there but never bothered to give 'em a chance. Fortunately for Owl City, one such chance was given tonight. It turns out, Owl City is the same guy from Swimming With Dolphins. If you remember Ambient Blue--yes that happy electropop clubby type of deal--Owl City is of the same vein, that is Adam Young.

Owl City fortunately got lucky and managed to get hyped up and exploded at the right time this year. With the release of Ocean Eyes in July 2009, album sales skyrocketed at a respectable rank. Furthermore, the scrobble rate for Owl City on Last.FM is accelerating for competency with larger names like Coldplay, MGMT, Decemberists, and so on and so forth.

Here's a breakdown of what I think about Owl City after going through every material released by Owl City tonight.

First Off, Ocean Eyes. My first Owl City album. Ocean Eyes run for nearly one hour long. It opens with the first track called Cave In--the chorus of this song concludes this album, this noble project of Adam Young, and its entirety for me: get me out of this cavern before I cave in. Don't believe me? Try this:


Cave In (Ocean Eyes)

And this:

Panda Bear (Of June)

And this:

Hello Seattle (remix, Of June)

And this:

Super Honeymoon (Maybe I'm Dreaming)

And this:

Hot Air Balloon (Myspace Monthly Release?)

And this:

Strawberry Avalanche (single)

And this:

Christmas song (single)

If you went through these seven tracks, you get a taste of the entirety of Owl City and what Adam Young will offer you throughout the years--the past, the present, the future.

After tonight, I admit to like and dislike Owl City all at the same time. But after tonight, I do not think I can handle anymore of Owl City for the next 90 days at least. Seriously? I decided that Owl City is just a big hype, lures you in with its candy-flavored melody and beats, but recycles the same deal of music because hey, recycling is green and sexy these days.

Yes, this is just one of those big hypes with no sense of variety, no evolution of style. There is no way--in this world and in this age--that I can place Owl City in my memorable list of 2009.

Not convinced? Buy the albums. Really. Worth checking out, not worth keeping. That's Owl City.