Expect to hear a lot about Owl City this year. Adam Young, the laptop maestro straight out of his parents' Minnesota basement, makes inoffensive synth-pop music - but it gets irritating very, very quickly.
Wondering who that annoyingly catchy song that's currently being blasted from every radio station on earth several times an hour belongs to? Meet Adam Young, aka Owl City - the young Minnesotan responsible for 'Fireflies'. Young may seem like just another MySpace Music success story (he reportedly began dabbling in music-making while living in his parents' basement), but the figures already speak for themselves: 'Fireflies' has hit the top of the charts on both sides of the pond, and his second album 'Ocean Eyes' is set to follow suit.
Seeing pictures of a laptop-affixed Young playing live - and the fact that his music is marketed as 'synthpop' and 'dance' - one would make an educated guess that his music could sound similar to that of Calvin Harris. Nothing could be further from the truth; these are supremely one-dimensional songs, even as pop music goes. Young's faintly AutoTuned voice doesn't exactly help matters, either. With his rounded twang and several of 'Ocean City''s songs maintaining a glitchy, ethereal effect, Owl City have won comparisons with Rilo Kiley offshoot The Postal Service, but there's nothing here as affecting or intelligent.
Sure, there are some nicely rounded melodies and eminently hummable riffs - 'The Bird and the Worm' recalls the marvellous Alphabeat, and 'Umbrella Beach' is one of few tracks that actually veer away from the MOR-synthpop blueprint. Any positives are soon negated by Young's atrocious lyrics, however: "With your ear to a seashell / You can hear the waves in underwater caves / As if you actually were inside a saltwater room" and "I've been to the dentist a thousand times, so I know the drill" evoke no reaction other than a strong urge to cringe.
There's no doubting that Owl City have mass appeal - it's just a shame that for anyone over the age of 12, there's little merit to his music.
