Owl City
Ocean Eyes

THE REVIEW

Perhaps you occasionally feel the need for a break, between an album by Sigur Ros, another by Sonic Youth, and the first Amnesiac you see on the street. Maybe you feel the need to listen to something simple and not too demanding, yet still of a certain quality. Does that happen to you? Well, it does to me, and I maintain that the album I'm writing about is the perfect exemplification of what I'm describing.

"Ocean Eyes" was released in the heart of the summer of 2010 and hit my ears like a pleasant cyclone. It's the second album by (or of) Owl City, a one-man band whose real name is Adam Young, a hopeful 25-year-old American musician. It consists of about forty minutes of synth-pop made of bubbly keyboards, synthetic sounds and programmed drums, sugary melodies easy to remember and sing. Melodies that, even though they may be a bit light, stick in your ears for a long time, providing an unexpected sense of relief.
It's impossible to resist the little keyboards and sound ornaments in Cave In, just as one can't resist the verse sung in easily understandable academic English. The sugary tunes and glitz appear everywhere, producing twelve slightly similar tracks yet with irresistible cheerfulness. Similarly, there's the minimal guitar, almost dance-like electronic voices, and the easy refrain (with friends like these/ who needs enemies) of The Bird And The Worm. Umbrella Beach is also excellent, lively and danceable, while the calmer Fireflies and Hello Seattle grow on simpler structures with less intrusive production, if I may say so: always omnipresent little keyboards and an almost distorted solitary voice. Fireflies turned out to be an excellent single that stayed in the Billboard chart for several weeks (despite very limited promotion, it even reached number 1 here in Italy), while Hello Seattle was surprisingly ignored. Again, another song that captivates with its simplicity is Saltwater Room: a guitar, a keyboard, and Adam's voice intertwines with Breanne Duren's sultry vocals.

A little less convincing, if only for the lyrics, is Dental Care, which you'll truly appreciate only if, like the protagonist of the song, you have years of experience with dentists. Additionally, songs like Meteor Shower, On The Wing, or Vanilla Twilight revert to meticulous productions, multiple electronic layers, and various overlapping synthetic voices; on the other hand, The Trip Of The Iceberg or Tidal Wave offers us yet more catchy and carefree choruses.
Everything flows smoothly and spontaneously, without blemishes, without the moments of boredom or nausea that often strike with albums of this type. In this case, however, we have a simple and enjoyable album that, I repeat, against all odds, doesn't exhaust its appeal in a month; an album that as of 2012, hasn't lost its freshness at all, and certainly not because it's January. Indeed, take it to the beach this summer as an alternative to the South American junk. Because this is an excellent album for the summer. And for all those who never gave up on the disappearance of the Postal Service.
7.5