Review Summary: Owl City gives up hope not only in our day to day lives, but also in the pop music of 2010.
As far as chart pop goes, 2009 saw innovative and interesting music shoved underground and the horrific wave of feeble urban-glamour-electro-pop-tosh take over the charts. Regurgitated synth chords and nauseatingly meaningless lyrics abound, and frankly, autotune began to take the mick. Lady Gaga, 2009’s only saviour of chart music, even descended from her world of giant bathtubs and ambiguous gender innuendos and kindly showed the music scene how this was supposed to be done (after all, she invented it) but few took heed.
The almighty X Factor dominated the UK Top 40 during the second half of the year; every artist who performed on the show, no matter how dull the performance, entered our charts almost immediately, and at alarmingly high positions, I hasten to add. UK music buyers were buying what was being shoved down their throats, because frankly, they were not exposed to anything else. Those that didn’t normally buy music were compelled to buy copies of singles they had watched the music videos of, most probably with the sound down.
As 2010 is ushered in, there is a lot of exciting music in the pipeline, in this country alone, some of it certainly aimed at the commercial market. Yet we have Iyaz, a more irritating (yes...) and Jamaican Tinchy Stryder, at number 1, and are currently witnessing a 15 year old kid from over the Atlantic, one young Justin Bieber, climb the charts with a track that is so disturbing it really should be put on a list. Will we hear from these artists again? No. Will there be more like them? Undoubtedly. And will THEY last? ...well, you get the gist.
But there is hope. Originally released September last year in the US, “Ocean Eyes” was Owl City’s debut album on a major label. The track “Fireflies” climbed the charts and became a surprise number Billboard number 1. On paper, the synths were there, the sequenced beats were there, and yes, the autotune was there... but something is different about Owl City’s take on synthpop. There is nothing urban about him. He has essentially invented rural synthpop... no, hear me out.
The last month has seen something of a surprise emergence of Adam Young, the shy young laptop geek behind Owl City, in the UK. All the sounds we were used to hearing from Gaga, Ke$ha, Tinchy Stryder, Alexandra Burke, JLS (in order of rapidly decreasing appeal), we were hearing them from a thoroughly unglamorous, faceless individual with a sickly sweet yet adorable happy-go-lucky croon and love of warm pads, twinkly sequencers and fairytale lyrics. And the autotune Young applies to his voice makes him sound more like a daydreaming robot who wants to be a real boy rather than a cold heartless android warrior for Simon Cowell’s Syco records.
His debut proper, “Ocean Eyes”, out in the UK on February 22nd, is hardly perfect. At times, it all gets a bit mushy, granted, and the track about taking care of one’s teeth is a bit silly. And you generally have to feeling very starry eyed to listen to the whole 45 minute record in its entirety. But when a track hits you in the right place, you can’t help but fall in love. Opener “Cave In” is delightful, all bouncy synths and ‘da da da’s, whilst first UK single “Umbrella Beach” is a simply glorious ray of dancepop sunshine that could bring a smile to the most cynical of anti-pop martyrs. And “Fireflies” is as enchanting on the 20th listen as on the first.
Of course, anything this saccharine is going to eventually grate. A couple of the ballads up the sugar intake to ridiculous levels, “The Saltwater Room” and “Vanilla Twilight” being for the most hardcore of lovestruck hopefuls. But on the whole, Young gets away with murder. The UK edition will also come with a bonus disk featuring 3 standalone singles from Owl City from last year, “Hot Air Balloon”, “Sunburn” and the ridiculously addictive “Strawberry Avalanche”, each so wonderful you do wonder why they didn’t make it to the final cut of “Ocean Eyes”.
As euphoric closer “Tidal Wave” hits its final majestic chords, Young utters the most touching lyric you’ve ever heard through an autotune, “I don’t need a telescope to see that there’s hope, and that makes me feel brave”. Thanks to Owl City, hope is now potentially a UK chart topper, and that certainly makes me feel brave enough to predict big things for Owl City in 2010.
If you’re going to hate to love or love to hate anything at all this year, I EMPLORE you to make it Owl City.
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