Adam Young is one busy guy. His second major release All Things Bright and Beautiful released not even a year ago, followed by massive touring buoyed by moderate success from singles like “Alligator Sky” and “Galaxies.” Then, a few weeks ago he announced the completion of a new record, allegedly with eurodance influences. Then, out of the blue the Shooting Star EP is announced, and now it’s out. What’s it like? Good! Very good.
There’s no doubt Owl City has more commercial appeal this time around. First single “Shooting Star” soars with that classic Owl City sensibility with a tad less cheesy citrus fruits and tropical beach vibes and more straight up radio pop vibes. Some turned off by the Nickelodeon-esque cheesiness of “Fireflies” might find this track easier to dig. “Gold” follows with a more mid-tempo, percussion driven vibe with a drawn out chorus. Some might find the “G-g-g-ooooold” effect annoying but I like it. Next is the previously-mentioned-on-the-blog “Dementia” with Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 which channels Mae a tad. I’m all for experimentation, but I hope the style of this track is a mere deviation from the norm, and not THE future norm. “Take it All Away” is probably the least catchy and most percussion driven, with an abundance of stomp-clap effects but it is still fun enough to quickly flow by, even on first listen.
This EP is just a ton of fun. But, that’s what people have come to expect from Owl City. He made synth-pop mainstream, and after All Things Bright and Beautiful didn’t have as much mainstream success it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Adam Young decided to work with a producer this time around. I’ll reserve judgment on whether he strays too far from his identity for when the LP releases, but for now I love this!
Score: 4/5
I definitely disagree with your opinion, new style is a total waste of his talent
I also firmly disagree with the reviewer, only because some of his information is incorrect: Adam Young didn’t decide to work with outsourced producers and writers, his record label decided for him. Despite Adam’s classy attempts to gloss over the whole thing by saying he was “excited” for the new experience of Owl City being out of his control, the sales-minded Top 40 influence on this EP is glaringly obvious. Sure, he probably had some creative input in some areas (you can tell he was able to add a few things to these tracks by the way parts of the instrumentation sparkle) but the generic lyrics and predictable chord progressions make it quite evident that the Owl City we knew and loved is dead. And to clarify, this isn’t Adam Young’s fault at all.. the blame lies solely with the consumers who didn’t buy ATBAB and his record label.
Appreciate the comments. Ryan, you’re probably right – that doesn’t change the fact that in my opinion this is “good mainstream” when it easily could have been “bad mainstream”. Different strokes for different folks, though.