Owl City – Ocean Eyes

Album review by Jamie Reynolds

On being asked to review the new album by Owl City called Ocean Eyes, I had to admit that I had never even heard any of their previous stuff. To not sounds stupid I quickly punched in some magic keys on my notebook and began a search on the world of the internet. Owl City is the product of Adam Young who I read suffered from Insomnia which resulted in him making music in his parents basement while he was working for Coca-Cola. The interest in his music grew quickly on MySpace and he was signed. First off I was bombarded by a lot of bad press surrounding Adam and the constant push that he was just ripping off / copying the works of The Postal Service. I have always been a huge fan of The Postal Service that was made up of Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello that released one album back in 2003 titled Give Up. There were a lot of comments about The Postal Service not having to make another record because Adam has made an exact copy of what that album could be and it just goes on and on and on. For me this sounded like an amazing feat because I have craved an album that gave me the same feeling that Give Up gave me when I first heard it. I decided to try and forget about everything I had read and give Adam the time of day to listen to Ocean Eyes with new ears and base it on what was going to be my first taste of Owl City.

So I loaded my stereo with the new untouched shiny disc, turned up the volume and pressed play. With De Ja Vu hitting me now, thinking about it again, my face was slapped with the biggest smile I have sported in a long time. The album starts off with Cave In (joined by Matthew Thiessen of Relient K who co-produced the album) and from the start I know that this is going to become one of my favourite albums of the year but if not it would be one of my favourites of all time. I’m not a musician and I won’t claim to be but the sounds that combine to make what is playing can only give a feeling of warmth, something that assists making me feel happy …. feel good music if I can call it that. I battle to carry on further than track one as I keep it on repeat for a good while just to take in what is going on fully.

Progressing through the rest of the album helps me to realize that not only are the sounds amazingly pleasing but they are assisted by some extremely catchy song writing that I know will become sound tracks to movies that will be filled with love, hope and happiness. My favourite lyric on the album comes in the form of “The silence isn’t so bad ’til I look at my hands and feel sad ’cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly” and I sent my girl a text quoting those lines and the reply I got was one that I shouldn’t really publish on here but it was good. “Thanks Adam!”

The album is due to be released in the UK on the 22nd of February with the first single being that of Fireflies which is one of the most radio friendly songs I have heard in ages. The music video is out and I know that this song will be playing on a good amount of headphones for a long while.

I have a few favourites on the album but if I had to narrow it down to just one it would have to be Vanilla Twilight, no wait … it would be The Bird and the Worm, no wait … this is hard because I do like them all … hmm, wait I think it has to be The Saltwater Room because it works so well with guest appearance from Breanne Düren who’s voice is really calming and fits perfectly with Adam’s. Repeat … Repeat … Repeat …

I understand that people like to moan and go on about things just to have something to be negative about and to make news about something no matter what it is. I personally don’t get it because hearing an album like this makes me think that you could only be stupid not to take the time to sit back and enjoy it without slating it or trying to compare it to something made 7 years ago. It does have a lot of resemblance to the old album from The Postal Service but it has to be considered in its own right as it really is good and well thought of. Who cares if Adam is going to sell hundreds of thousands of albums because something like this is really sell-able and I can only be excited thinking that due to popularity he will be able to make a follow up album unlike The Postal Service that didn’t really get the appreciation it deserved back in the day. I look forward to the next Owl City album with great anticipation and until then, Ocean Eyes will rack up a good amount of plays on my stereo.

Music video by Owl City performing Fireflies. (C) 2009 Universal Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

This post is tagged Adam Young, Fireflies, Island, Ocean Eyes, Owl City