The time has come again to get up to speed on the latest album releases. SpeakSonic delivers with this week’s bite-sized album reviews. And they are…
Owl City – The Midsummer Station
Minus the Bear – Infinity Overload
Matchbox Twenty – North
Imagine Dragons – Night Visions
P!ink – The Truth About Love
Deadmau5 – album title goes here
Muse – The Second Law
The “Fireflies” and “Call Me Maybe” stars teamed up to produce the summer hit “Good Time” and now there’s a fun music video to go along with it. Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen hang out and dance around in the wilderness in this feel-good, no-frills clip.
What happens when you team up synth-pop maestro Adam Young and current pop sensation Carly Rae Jepsen? Well, this.
It’s funny; when I first heard Jepson’s radio smash “Call Me Maybe” I imagined the orchestration as something that could have been birthed by Owl City. Perhaps Young was mesmerized by the track, too, and insisted to collaborate with the Canadian singer-songwriter. The result is “Good Time,” a song that is light on lyrics but instead focuses on a catchy synthy beat that is destined to become the next song to carry us through the summer days. Listen to it in the SoundCloud embed below, and come June 26 I’ll provide an iTunes download link.
In related Owl City news, Young has named his fourth studio album and given it a late summer release date. The Midsummer Station is out August 21. On May 15 he released Shooting Star, a four-track EP that’s a taste of what’s to come in a couple months.
Owl City, aka Adam Young, is readying his fourth studio album and here’s proof. Though the followup to 2009’s Ocean Eyes and last year’s All Things Bright and Beautiful has yet to be named, a track from said album has surfaced on the ‘Net and it’s called “Dementia.” Young collaborated with Blink-182 bassist and lead vocalist Mark Hoppus to produce the electro-rockin’ new single and you can take a listen above. Can we expect his next album to contain more of a rock than pop vibe? After listening to this ditty I’d say signs point to an enthusiastic yes. Young has not marked the upcoming album’s release date yet.
Bonus! Somehow this came and went under my radar… Young released a trippy music video for his track “Deer in the Headlights” off All Things Bright and Beautiful. It features the Delorean from Back to the Future and Young’s female counterpart Lights. Watch it after the break.
[Via HitFix] Continue reading Owl City, Mark Hoppus-assisted single ‘Dementia’ leaks
Adam Young’s third studio album is out now! “All Things Bright and Beautiful” features 12 songs from the electro-pop-synth master, including singles “Alligator Sky” and “Galaxies.” iTunes is currently offering the bonus track version which includes all 12 tracks, the aforementioned singles, and “How I Became the Sea.” Pick up Owl City’s new space travel-themed album today; it should join Ocean Eyes, Maybe I’m Dreaming and An Airplane Carried Me To Bed in your growing collection of all things Adam Young.
Bonus! Hop after the break to watch a “making of” video that features Young talking about the process of putting the album together. Continue reading Owl City’s ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ out now
You all know about Owl City (aka Adam Young) and his chart-topping song “Fireflies” and album Ocean Eyes. But did you know that before Owl City there was Sky Sailing and he had an album called An Airplane Carried Me To Bed? Here’s the story behind what’s being called a “side project” in Young’s words:
Three and a half years ago, I recorded a collection of songs in my parent’s basement during the bleary-eyed hours of night when sleep and I could not bring ourselves to meet. I was a metalworker, working 6 AM to 4 PM at a warehouse in my little southern Minnesota town. I was writing, creating, thinking, imagining and breathing music with every second I had to spare. Music has always been my dream, but at that point in time, it was merely a feather tossed to the wind. Regardless, my spirits were far from dampened and I created music as fast and as furiously as I could. In my little basement bedroom, I had an old Dell computer, Reason 2.5, a friend’s borrowed Behringer C-1 condenser, a Behringer 8 channel analog mixer and my uncle’s old Alvarez. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but I was a dreamer and music was my escape so I gave it everything I had. Never expecting my music to be heard anywhere but by my parents through the floorboards above, I wrote for my own ears. I was both artist and audience and I called myself Sky Sailing.
It’s true–the Sky Sailing’s vocals are very similar to what we hear on Ocean Eyes today. What differenciates the two alter egos is that Sky Sailing trades in Owl City’s current crop of synth-infused tracks for those that feature acoustic guitar and standard piano keys. Young explained to Billboard, “It was clear early on that it needed to be separate from Owl City. Overall, this piece is disconnected enough to be its own thing.”
On July 13, the 11-track An Airplane Carried Me To Bed was released to iTunes exclusively; it hits stores in physical form tomorrow (7/27). Although Young has done little to promote this new album, it quickly climbed the charts and sold thousands of copies during its initial digital release week. If you’re a fan of Owl City, you’ll want to preview what Sky Sailing has to offer. Feel free to preview four tracks from Airplane on his MySpace page.
[Thanks, Brian]
Are you a fan of Owl City (aka Adam Young)? If so, you will enjoy LIGHTS. To put it another way, if Adam Young was reincarnated as a girl, he’d be LIGHTS. Somehow, someway Young discovered LIGHTS, added her to his Spring Tour 2010 lineup, and she’s gained in popularity ever since.
Born Valerie Anne Poxleitner, LIGHTS legally changed her name to Lights Valerie Poxleitner and started her music career back in 2002. She’s a 22-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter and has that same synth-pop vibe that Young so expressively gives off in his music. She says her influences include Björk, Phil Collins, and ABBA. She’s known to cover other artists like Coldplay, Architects, and Collins.
In 2008 she came out with her debut six-track EP called LIGHTS. “Ice,” “Drive My Soul,” and “February Air” have music video counterparts, and they’re each embedded after the break. One year later she released a second EP called Saviour. It includes 4 tracks; two of them are remixes to the song “Saviour.” That track also has a music video. In 2009 she finally dropped her first album, The Listening. The 16 track album contains mostly a combination of songs from the two EPs, plus a few new selections. Later that year she dropped a third EP; The Ice Pack contains the album version plus six remixes of the song.
And that brings us to today. Having met her musical soulmate in Adam Young while on tour with Owl City, what better way to celebrate their uniting than with a collaboration? Yesterday her fourth EP found its way to iTunes; this version of Saviour includes the original track plus an Adam Young remix and a new music video to go along with it. Listen to “Saviour (Adam Young remix)” below and check out the music video for it (and the others) after the break.
[audio: LIGHTS – Saviour (Adam Young Remix).mp3]So, what do you think? Does this world long for a female counterpart to Owl City? I think it does.
“Vanilla Twilight” is the second single off Adam Young’s second album Ocean Eyes. It follows the chart-topping “Fireflies” I’m sure you’ve been inundated with on the radio. But do yourself a favor and download the entire album, it’s pure ear candy. This music video finds Young back on his synthesizer and features a bunch of people staring up into a beautiful sky, dropping everything they are doing and watching the swirling, colorful clouds in wonder. Many speculate it’s symbolic of the rapture, or some sort of salvational revival. Can’t help but smile in awe along with them. (Why, hello Shaq.)
Yeah I know this song has been out in the wild for some time now. In fact, it’s been sitting in the upper half of the iTunes top ten chart for weeks now. As of this writing it sits at #3 and the Ocean Eyes, the album it resides on, is at the #1 spot. But for those of you who have not yet experienced Adam Young’s music video for the popular tune, do yourself a favor and watch it right now. The kid’s a brilliant song writer and artist. The music video holds an air of tranquility and chaos and best represents the conception and meaning behind the song. Enjoy.