Maybe I’m dreaming about these Ocean Eyes closing for good

By now there are countless reviews written for Owl City and their electro-pop inspired musical creations and I’m beginning to notice a trend.  They all compare Adam young’s one man band to indie rock icons like Ben Gibbard and his projects [Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service].  I actually disagree with their stance on Owl City’s similarities.  While the songs rip off and repackage ideas from music that someone else has already created, I don’t think they sound really anything like Ben Gibbard or his two bands.  While this article may be a day or two late in its writing, I think it is about time that we fully analyze Ocean Eyes now that the new car smell has worn off and we get to see and hear what value Adam Young’s laptop music really contains.  A little side note about myself:  I may or may not be a music snob who has high standards for what I deem excellence in creativity but I’m allowed to hold such standards – I’m a working musician too.  I’ve seen bands come and go so I think it’s okay for me to speak up when I think something needs to be heard about a certain piece of musical artwork.  

I decided it was necessary to set aside a full night to give Ocean Eyes a complete and uninterrupted listen.  I took notes while listening on parts I liked and parts for which I didn’t necessarily care.  At the end of the night I came up with a verdict on the album and whether it will stand the test of time, or fall prey to the curse of those auto-tuned vocals we’ve been hearing since Cher thought it was a nifty effect.  Below are my track by track rants and musings during the listening process organized by track number and title: 

1.)     Cave In

Okay, this track wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the blatant Postal Service lyric rip off in the refrain where Young chants continuously “I won’t even look back”.  That’s a direct line that Ben Gibbard wrote 10 years ago!  In Young’s defense, you can’t put a patent on a sentence…but there’s got to be some standard where it’s so obvious that you’re stealing someone else’s ideas.  Come on, Adam at least choose a different line to repeat or even a different fashion in which to repeat the line. 

2.)    The Bird and the Worm

Now this is nice – this track is a cute analogy of love and comparing the chase to a bird searching for a worm.  This little number loses me though when the vocals cut through in their heavily pitch corrected format.  I’m able to be transported back in to the song’s atmosphere with the extremely catchy licks and echoed vocal lines.  This song seems to have the exact same vocal intervals as the last one did.  I wonder if this is going to carry though the whole album. 

3.)     Hello Seattle

Well here are those same vocal intervals I heard in “The Bird and the Worm”.  I wonder how much of this I can take before I want to give up early and drink myself into oblivion.  Okay did he just make a reference to Puget Sound?   I know that’s a legitimate place but Ben Gibbard totally used that line in one of his songs a LONG time ago.  I’m so bored with this song.  Do I really have to listen to nine more tracks? 

4.)     Umbrella Beach

Whoa, this is kind of cool – I feel like I’m listening to the sound track on that beach race of MarioKart 64.  I can actually get in to this track with the nice synths and melodies.  Oh no, did he just rip off The Verve?  I think that just happened – you could totally play “Bittersweet Symphony” over this outro and it would line up perfectly!  Come on! 

5.)     The Saltwater Room

Okay, now the Postal Service rip off’s show up in full swing.  That female vocal is awfully reminiscent of the Postal Service album Give Up.   Maybe Adam should take a hint from that album title and put it to practice. 

6.)     Dental Care

Well, I’ve never heard this interesting use of a childhood fear of going to the dentist and getting that chilling feeling anytime you get your teeth cleaned.  I think this one may be a keeper.  While the music sounds like a mixture between Ben Fold’s punchy piano arpeggios, it also has a hint of Motion City Sountrack’s production.  The idea is cool but it could have used more development.   

7.)     Meteor Shower

Ugh – only five more songs to go and I’m free!  While this track is most definitely an Angels and Airwaves or Tom Delong rip off, the lyrical concept is new and catchy.  I must also congratulate Adam Young on making me feel like I’m listening to Cher with the music in the background.  Next song please. 

8.)     On The Wing

And now the electro pop beats start to get old.  The Angels and Airwaves feel is still present in this track.  I feel like I’m in a dry club with and I am now forced to listen to the same song over and over again for hours on end.  Seriously, did I accidentally change the song back to the first track?  It sounds just like it – oh no!  It’s a new track!  Well at least the record is almost over. 

9.)     Fireflies

No. 

10.)  The Tip of the Iceberg

Yet again I am met with happy go lucky synthesized melodies and poppy beats.  I swear this song is where everyone gets the impression that Adam Young thinks he was Ben Gibbard in a past life.  The vocal melodies and vowel sounds are a complete replication of Gibbard’s stylistically indie voice. 

11.)  Vanilla Twilight

While this song has some pretty cleverly written synth lines, I can’t force myself to listen to it more than once. 

12.)  Tidal Wave

This use of the background voice is a new concept for this album…while it only took twelve tracks to get there…and it’s extremely pitch corrected.  I really want to know what this album would sound like in a live setting. 

                After listening to Owl City’s entire album it’s time I go deprogram while listening to Tom Waits, Ray Lamontagne or Radiohead.  Any will suffice.  Please, oh please, just never make me listen to that again! 

                My concluding analysis on Adam Young’s laptop creation is that he clearly put a lot of work into the whole project.  Programming those beats is no simple task and they are meticulously placed in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time.  Where the album falls short is that exact right spot happens so often that it seems as if Young hasn’t looked anywhere else to hide those nuances that take an album from just a record to a musical experience.  For the next release I hope that Owl City uses less pitch correction and more true sounds while holding creativity at the vertex of all their accomplishments.