Stumbling across the perfect pop hit must be its own kind of curse. It’s been two and a half years since Owl City’s “Fireflies” shot its way into the charts, seemingly from nowhere. With its lush, quirky melodies and wistful, lovelorn lyrics, Adam Young’s quirky electronic project seemed almost to have been custom-built by a crack team of pop scientists to appeal to dreamy girls like me.
“Fireflies” used to play on a loop at the store where I was working at the time; Young’s vocals and programming a dead ringer for Ben Gibbard’s work with The Postal Service - a band whose one album I loved to distraction. On paper it seemed like the perfect fit, yet in reality the song stirred up a visceral loathing I couldn’t explain away even before over-exposure kicked in.
Nothing on The Midsummer Station - actually the fourth album from a Minnesota native who already had a body of work behind him before his 2010 major label debut - stirs up anything like the same emotions. In fact, it barely stirs up any emotion at all. Once again well-constructed pop songs are executed flawlessly, with plenty of upbeat sloganeering about following lights and feeling free - and I feel nothing. Not even a guest appearance from one of the biggest pop stars in the world right now - Carly Rae Jepsen, on lead single “Good Time” - is enough to get me excited; reading an interview in which Young explains the “Call Me Maybe” singer “recorded her parts and sent them back over the internet” perhaps explains it.
The whole thing just feels so cynical, from the weaving in of trance and dub-step beats to the token genre-bending guest appearance from Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus. Recent Chemikal Underground signing Miaoux Miaoux created a very similar-sounding record in his debut for the legendary Scottish label a couple of months back, only his had soul. When I forget these songs 10 minutes from now, I’d be surprised if I miss them.
Listen to Owl City's collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen below
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