Owl City – Cinematic: The soundtrack to a boring documentary you can’t even watch.

Artist: Owl City
Album: Cinematic
Year: 2018
Grade: C

In Brief: Somewhere within this hodgepodge of bland personal anecdotes and ill-advised bits of genre-hopping, are a small handful of truly imaginative synthpop songs that remind me of why I once risked the scorn of fellow critics to proclaim that I actually liked Owl City. While sifting through 15 songs (and 3 alternate versions!) to find those rare gems is generally not a delightful experience, this album might still be a step up from Mobile Orchestra.

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What Am I Listening To? – June 2018

Wow, June was a crazy month for new music. Probably because there were five Fridays. A bunch of stuff I was looking forward to dropped on June 1, and then again just yesterday on June 29. Because I prefer to have listened to something a bare minimum of twice before mentioning it here, and just for the sake of my overall sanity, I’ve decided to punt a few of those June 29 releases to July, so that I can focus more on the few that I did manage to get to thus far.

Here are my first impressions of the latest releases from Sucré, Owl City, Neko Case, Father John Misty, The Flaming Lips, Dave Matthews Band, Arthur Buck, Kevin Max, Mike Shinoda, Florence + The Machine, Jim James, and Katie Herzig.

What Am I Listening To? – July 2015

Here are my first impressions of the latest releases from Noosa, Nate Ruess, Joy Williams, mewithoutYou, Wilco, Owl City, Gungor, Jon Foreman, and Umphrey’s McGee.

What Am I Listening To? – April 2015

Here are my first impressions of the latest releases from Future of Forestry, Death Cab for Cutie, P.O.D. Sucré, Owl City, Calexico, Passion Pit, Gotee Records, Mew, and Owel.

Owl City – The Midsummer Station: Midsummer Bummer

Artist: Owl City
Album: The Midsummer Station
Year: 2012
Grade: C-

In Brief: As dorky as Owl City’s past releases could sound, he was much more charming as a wallflower than he is here, desperately trying to fit into the mainstream.

Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful: Reality is a lovely place, but this guy wouldn’t want to live there.

Artist: Owl City
Album: All Things Bright and Beautiful
Year: 2011
Grade: B-

In Brief: Easily twice as goofy as Ocean Eyes, but it explores some new musical territory and should be a crowd-pleasing sequel, uncomfortable lyrical moments aside.

Owl City – Ocean Eyes: Who’s on Synth

Artist: Owl City
Album: Ocean Eyes
Year: 2009
Grade: B

In Brief: Sometimes you need to have a little bouncy, youthful, innocuous fun. Owl City’s here for the wide-eyed 16-year-old blogger inside some of us.