Owl City - The Midsummer Station (22/10/2012)
Owl City has remained the project of Adam Young since 2007, producing multiple hit singles and a vast legion of fans. Massive first album hit Fireflies propelled Owl City to major success which has continued until the present, but without another major single the question remains, can this third album propel the group to the massive stardom it seems destined for?
The Midsummer Station doesn’t get off to a good start with the synth pop, auto tune filled and contender-for-cheesiest-song-in-the-world, Dreams and Disasters. Lyrics such as “you say you wanna feel alive for ever after”, makes it seem like Young is even trying. Shooting Star doesn’t improve the mood much with its Eurovision pop hooks and utterly boring chorus about, you guessed it, shining brighter that a shooting star.
Fortunately we are given a reprieve from the constant over-use of auto tune vocals in Dementia, collaboration with Blink 182 bass player Mark Hoppus. It’s a guitar-driven song and actually works well as a soft-pop rock single. An engaging chorus and some guest vocals from Hoppus make the track instantly a rare highlight. The piano based I’m Coming After You initially appears to continue in a similar fashion, a catchy melody and verse. However, the chorus lets it down with the downright annoying “Woo-oo-woo-oo” vocals overturning the positives of this song.
The thing about this record is that the best tracks of this record, the previously mentioned Dementia and Carly Rae Jepsen featured Good Time are the best and most appealing songs. Whilst Good Time has yielded Young another massive hit, it’s the vocals of Jepsen which are the shining light, not the instrumentation he has produced. It appears at times Young is simply trying too hard, Embers features a great, rocking chorus but is let down by lengthy boring verses which immediately make me lose interest.
It’s an album full of songs that appear to be hastily written and destined to be either on the next American Pie rip-off film, or forgotten about completely. The final track, Take It All Away, sums up my feeling about this record pretty perfectly…except maybe leave Good Times and Dementia behind. After all, we all need the occasional guilty pleasure.
Sebastian Betten
The Midsummer Station doesn’t get off to a good start with the synth pop, auto tune filled and contender-for-cheesiest-song-in-the-world, Dreams and Disasters. Lyrics such as “you say you wanna feel alive for ever after”, makes it seem like Young is even trying. Shooting Star doesn’t improve the mood much with its Eurovision pop hooks and utterly boring chorus about, you guessed it, shining brighter that a shooting star.
Fortunately we are given a reprieve from the constant over-use of auto tune vocals in Dementia, collaboration with Blink 182 bass player Mark Hoppus. It’s a guitar-driven song and actually works well as a soft-pop rock single. An engaging chorus and some guest vocals from Hoppus make the track instantly a rare highlight. The piano based I’m Coming After You initially appears to continue in a similar fashion, a catchy melody and verse. However, the chorus lets it down with the downright annoying “Woo-oo-woo-oo” vocals overturning the positives of this song.
The thing about this record is that the best tracks of this record, the previously mentioned Dementia and Carly Rae Jepsen featured Good Time are the best and most appealing songs. Whilst Good Time has yielded Young another massive hit, it’s the vocals of Jepsen which are the shining light, not the instrumentation he has produced. It appears at times Young is simply trying too hard, Embers features a great, rocking chorus but is let down by lengthy boring verses which immediately make me lose interest.
It’s an album full of songs that appear to be hastily written and destined to be either on the next American Pie rip-off film, or forgotten about completely. The final track, Take It All Away, sums up my feeling about this record pretty perfectly…except maybe leave Good Times and Dementia behind. After all, we all need the occasional guilty pleasure.
Sebastian Betten