April 17th, 2009 
James Shotwell Artist: Owl City
Album: Maybe I’m Dreaming
Genre: Pop/Electro Pop
Label: Unsigned
Tracklist:
1. On The Wing
2. Rainbow Veins
3. Super Honeymoon
4. The Saltwater Room
5. Early Birdie
6. Air Traffic
7. The Technicolor Phase
8. Sky Diver
9. Dear Vienna
10. I’ll Meet You There
11. This Is The Future
12. West Coast Friendship
I realize this album is a couple months old, but Owl City is just now getting the recognition he’s deserved for years and we’re going to help him out as much as possible. If you gave a breath of youthfulness into a Postal Service album, you’d have Owl City. It’s mainly simple electro pop performed by a swooped, bang boy with good looks and a radio ready voice. It’s the perfect backage and Maybe I’m Dreaming exemplifies that quite well.
Fading in with, “On The Wing,” we get a springtime styled beat that brims with hopefulness. As soon as the vocals come in, you know every tween to young adult female can feel her knees grow weak. If this project had been created by some major label looking to cash in it would seem so trite, but knowing this is just a wide eyed young man makes feel so fresh and pleasing to the ears. “Rainbow Veins” continues this feel, but with a bit of strange lyrical content. Any song that ever tries to describe grinding up a rainbow and shooting it into your veins is going to be questioned by suburban parents, but with this kind of dreamy sonic tones, I can see this one certainly coming under fire. However, it’s just so dream laden that I don’t see how anyone could find evil in it. On the fourth track, “The Saltwater Room,” we’re given some acoustic guitar to switch up the groove a pinch and it works quite well. The song itself is a bit slower than we’ve seen before, but with some female guest vocals it grows to be a fruitful track. “Early Birdie,” the fifth track, feels a bit weak and makes us fear a mid album slump, but luckily there’s still some great stuff to find on this release.
“The Technicolor Phase” plays a fun game of lyrical paint by numbers and brings us back into the release, while, “Sky Diver,” gives us another dose of the more relaxed Owl City. It’s in the back quater of the record that I feel the most gold is left to be found. It actually feels like you’ve reached the winner’s circle of completing the album from the point, “Dear Vienna,” begins. That track has a nice uptempo rhythm met with quick, tongue twisting vocals that paint summer dreams and hopes quite vividly. It’s tracks like this that make you wonder how this young man is setting under the radar of the national scene. I don’t see how anyone with even an ounce of respect for this area of music wouldn’t be completely in love with this track. It’s simply great, but not as stunning as the album closer, “West Coast Friend.” I’m not sure what immediately drew me to the last track on Maybe I’m Dreaming, but I’m glad it happened. Everything from the music to lyrics comes together beautifully for the perfect album closer that leaves us with hearts filled with joy and hope. It’s just great.
If you spend another day without experiencing Owl City for yourself, you’re not living life to the fullest. We are living at a time when making something musically that will last for years seems near impossible, but this young man has done it with Maybe I’m Dreaming. Much like the Postal Service’s Give Up is hailed by hipsters as a timeless piece of electro pop, Owl City has the opportunity to have that effect on a younger generation. There is hope in the music of Owl City and at times like this, who couldn’t use more of that?
*Written By: James Shotwell*
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Owl City is my favorite. =D
He has a new album coming out this fall.
I’m SUPER stoked.