Ocean Eyes is the second full-length album by synthpop act Owl City. It was made available for download on July 14, 2009, on iTunes, and on September 1, 2009 it was released in stores with a photograph of the Burj Al Arab as its album artwork. A vinyl edition and a two-disc Deluxe Edition of the album were also released. The Deluxe Edition was released on January 26, 2010,http and features three new tracks and a remix of "Hello Seattle". The album features guest vocals by Relient K vocalist, Matt Thiessen, on the songs "Fireflies", "Cave In", "The Bird and the Worm" and "Tidal Wave".

Overview

On July 14, 2009, the song "Fireflies" was chosen as the Single of the Week by the iTunes music store. This led to a huge success as the song was downloaded over 650,000 times and helped the album reach #2 on the US store. This success also led to the record company pushing back the release date of the physical copy of the album from July 28, 2009 to September 1, 2009. Adam Young, a.k.a. Owl City told The Sun that "Cave In" was especially dear to his heart as "that song captures in just a few words, all my hopes and dreams." The album sold approximately 18,000 copies digitally in its debut week. The album has sold around 609,000 copies and reached the top ten in the US peaking at #8. The same week its lead single "Fireflies" topped the Billboard Hot 100. Eventually, Ocean Eyes climbed to number one on iTunes after the album price was lowered for a limited period of time.

The album has slightly modified versions of songs from previous albums, namely "Hello Seattle" from Of June and "On The Wing" and "The Saltwater Room" from Maybe I'm Dreaming.

Reception

Ocean Eyes has received mixed reviews from critics, based on a Metacritic score of 53/100. The album gained some positive reviews, including Entertainment Weekly which gave it a B+ and said that it was filled with catchy choruses and that the highlight was "Dental Care". Jesus Freak Hideout also was favorable; the review highlighted the album's style of music, saying that it had "dreamy lyrics and open soundscapes." However, Rolling Stone claimed Ocean Eyes to be disappointing, only awarding it 2/5 stars. They especially criticized the slower songs, saying that tracks like "On the Wing" were "just mush". Allmusic gave the album an average rating of 2.5/5.

Singles

Official singles

* "Fireflies" was released as the album's first single on July 14, 2009 in the US and on January 8, 2010 in the UK.httphttp It climbed the Billboard Hot 100 slowly until reaching #7 and leaping to #1 the following week. "Fireflies" topped the Billboard Chart for two non-consecutive weeks, as well as topping the iTunes Top 100 Chart for several weeks. "Fireflies" was originally released as a free US iTunes digital download the week the album had its digital release in the US, which could have contributed to the single's massive success.http "Fireflies" also reached No.1 on the Official UK Singles Chart on January 24th 2010.

* "Vanilla Twilight" was released as the album's second US single on January 26, 2010 to radio, the same day that the deluxe edition of Ocean Eyes hit stores. url=http During the same week that "Fireflies" topped the Hot 100, "Vanilla Twilight" debuted at #95. It has since re-entered and re-peaked on the Hot 100 at #72 on the week ending January 9, 2010.

* "Umbrella Beach" was released as the album's second UK single on May 17, 2010. "Umbrella Beach" was originally released promotionally on November 19, 2009, preceding the release of the official first single "Fireflies." An exclusive remix created by Kenny Hayes is included on the single release.http There is also a music video available for it, similar to "Fireflies" and "Vanilla Twilight".

* "The Saltwater Room" will be the next single after Umbrella Beach as the album's 4th Single. It will be released in the late 2010. Other information remains unknown

Digital singles

* "Strawberry Avalanche" and "Hot Air Balloon" were released as digital-only promotional singles in June 2009, leading up to the release of the album, though they did not appear on the album. "Sunburn" was released as a digital-only promotional single for the soundtrack of 90210 in October 2009, and it was also released free to people who bought "Ocean Eyes" during a span of several weeks of December 2009. All three songs, "Strawberry Avalanche", "Hot Air Balloon", and "Sunburn", appeared on the deluxe version of Ocean Eyes, which was released on January 26, 2010.http

Contributors

; Owl City

* Adam Young – vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, producer, engineer

; Additional musicians and production

* Breanne Duren – additional vocals on tracks 5 & 8

* Matthew Thiessen – additional vocals on tracks on 1, 2, 9, 12 & 14, production on tracks 2, 9, 12

* Melisa Morgan – additional vocals on tracks 7 & 10

* Jolie Lindholm – additional vocals on track 7

* Phil Peterson – cello on track 1, 4, 8, 9 & 10

* Steve Bursky – producer, management

* Ted Jensen – mastering

* Christopher Kornmann – art direction

* Imran Khan – artwork

* John Goodmanson – audio mixer

Chart performance

References

Category:2009 albums

Category:Owl City albums

Category:Electropop albums

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Artist/Band Information

Owl City is a synthpop musical project by American Adam Young. Young started out making music in his basement in his hometown of Owatonna, Minnesota, US, later developing a following through his MySpace profile before being signed to Universal Republic.

Young's influences are disco and European electronic music. After two independent albums, Owl City gained mainstream popularity from the 2009 major label debut album Ocean Eyes, which spawned the hit single "Fireflies".

History

Early years (2007–08)

Owl City was started by Adam Young in his parents' basement while he worked at a Coca-Cola warehouse, turning to music as a result of his insomnia. Young received a lot of attention for songs he had uploaded to MySpace, the "viral popularity" of which would later result in his signing to Universal Republic. In 2007, Owl City released an EP titled Of June, followed by the 2008 release of the album Maybe I'm Dreaming. Of June reached #20 on the Billboard Electronic Albums chart, and Maybe I'm Dreaming peaked on the same chart at #16.

Owl City's first two records were released while Young was unsigned. In early 2009, music industry website "Crazed Hits" leaked that Owl City signed with the major label Universal Republic.

Ocean Eyes (2009)

Owl City's third album Ocean Eyes was released on iTunes July 14, 2009, with the physical release following on July 28, 2009. The album debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200. Owl City has released three official singles, "Umbrella Beach", "Vanilla Twilight", and "Fireflies". "Fireflies" topped the US and Canadian charts and became the most-downloaded song on iTunes in the US. Ocean Eyes reached the top ten on the US album charts and topped the US electronic charts and also reached Amazon MP3's top 10 most downloaded album list. By December 2009, it was certified Gold in the United States. On 24 January 2010, Owl City reached the number 1 spot in the UK Top 40 Singles chart with "Fireflies".

Young is joined by Breanne Düren on several tracks; the most noted being "The Saltwater Room." Owl City's live band consists of: Breanne Duren (background vocals/keyboards), Matthew Decker (drums), Laura Musten (violin), and Hannah Schroeder (cello). He will likely collaborate with Lights in early 2010 on his new tour in the US, Asia, Australia and Europe.

Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen has toured and collaborated with Owl City on several tracks including in the hit single "Fireflies", where Matt can be heard as the backup vocals. Young also produced Relient K's song "Terminals". Thiessen stated that it is very likely that he and Young will produce a side project called Goodbye Dubai in the future.

"Fireflies" was released as a free download on the iPod/iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge 3 by Tapulous. Prior to the July 14, 2009 internet release of Ocean Eyes, and the "Fireflies" single, Steve Hoover was hired as a director for a music video for "Fireflies". The video had an exclusive premiere on MySpace, but was leaked onto the video viewing websites, YouTube and Dailymotion hours earlier. "Fireflies" became a big sleeper hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the week ending November 7, 2009.

Owl City is featured on Soundtrack 90210 with a song titled "Sunburn", which was released on October 13, 2009. Owl City has toured with The Scene Aesthetic and Brooke Waggoner. He was also guest featured in the soundtrack to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with a song that was already featured in his debut album, "The Technicolor Phase" .

On Monday, December 7, 2009 Owl City was shortlisted as one of the 15 acts for the BBC Sound of 2010.

Owl City is currently touring with Lights and Deas Vail. He announced on March 31st that he would be supporting John Mayer starting on August 18th.

2010

Young has revealed a new musical project known as Sky Sailing, moving away from his usual electronica genre of music and introducing acoustic guitar and piano accompaniments into his work. His first album under this new project is entitled 'An Airplane Carried Me To Bed', and will be released July 13th 2010 via iTunes.

He also recently announced via Twitter that more music will soon be released under his main project, Owl City.

In May of 2010 Adam Young collaborated with high profile British electronical composer, producer, musician & song writer Nick Bracegirdle. Under his Chicane alias, Nick Bracegirdle will release the single 'Middle Distance Runner' on July 26th 2010 (UK) - featuring Adam Young on vocals. This will be the first single from the upcoming 4th Chicane album Giants.

Musical styles and influences

Owl City has been stated to play within the musical genres of indietronica, emo-pop, and alternative. Young has stated that he is inspired by disco and European electronic music..

Other projects

Young also produces music under a wide variety of other projects, some of which contain only a single song. These projects include: Port Blue, Windsor Airlift, Aquarium, Basketball, Blue Dallas, Chester McWiggins and the Kowboy Kidz, Dolphin Park, El Uno Clarence, The Grizzly, Insect Airport, Keehar, Novel, Nuclear Suplex, Seagull Orchestra, Sky Sailing, Swimming with Dolphins, Apes With Gunz, American Jesus, Eleazar, Yesterday's Tomorrow, Beat Master Deluxe, Slam Dance, Can You Smell What The Rock Is Cooking?, Join The Dark Side You Knob, Half Nelson Flying Corkscrew Clothes Line, The Atlantic, The Sports, Tombstone Piledriver, Slingshot Powerbomb, Understory, The Wellington Giggle-Bomb Experience, and Spinning Skull Smash.

Most of these projects were started before Owl City propelled Young to fame. Some were formed alongside Adam's college friends as musical projects for a music course Young was studying at the time.

Concert tours

Discography

;Studio albums

* Maybe I'm Dreaming (2008)

* Ocean Eyes (2009)

References