I consider myself to have an open mind towards music, but there is a difference between having an open mind, where you legitimately enjoy many types of music, and just accepting shit being shoveled into your ears.
Anyone defending owl city, thats awesome, you like whatever music you like, but as soon as someone brought up that people don't like it because they don't have an open mind, I fucking lost it.
I listened to the entire album several times, just to let you know I'm not basing this off of one listen to a single song.
Never, ever before have I found myself laughing at an artist, but that was the case for this album. The songwriting, the cheesy synth lines, the blatant sound aquiescence from the postal service, all of this melds together in what appeared to me to be one long drawn out sonic joke. I swear to god in one song the chorus is a quote from finding fucking nemo. I kept hoping, honestly hoping that the last track would be a 3:10 apology to Mr. Gibbard and the listeners who suffered through this, or at the very least a fucking punch line to the synth-pop laden douchebaggry-filled joke that it took 40 minutes to tell. Fireflies, one of the more standout tracks I guess, presents some sort of non-sensical acid trip full of flashing lights and losts of self absorbed writing, that I'm sure presented some sort of meaning to him, that in actuality comes off as an explosion of random phrases that do nothing but steep the next collection of absurd thoughts in the same kind of puzzlement that prevades the entire album.Though the most standout point to me was about half way through the song Umbrella Beach, what the hell kind of name is that, when after an intermission of breaking waves it devolves into a beratement of synths that conjured up some regretful memories of dancing to barbie girl as a child quickly splits into a orchestra of synthesized strings before i can force my repressed child memories back into the hole in the back of my mind. That might not sound that bad, but i find it hard to endorse any song that forces me to question the sexuality of my six year old self. I guess, in the end, I should really thank Owl City, not providing me for entertainment, but reminding me, that like B movies, music that is poorly made can sometimes be a lot of fun, or it can make you cringe. Owl City did the latter, quite frequently.
I have never been one to disparage on the views of others, I have always believed firmly in the phrase "To each their own." But honestly, can someone explain to me how this could be mistaken for a good album? To be the product of someone with talent? People never cease to amaze me.
