Owl City's Ocean Eyes is a pretty disappointing record

71 degrees with ceiling tiles overhead and very little ambient light... ok, so I am not writing this after walking O Malley. Rather I'm on my lunch break at work. I had planned to walk the dog and then blog tonight but I'm not sure I want to listen to this album again right away.

After first hearing the single "Fireflies" on the radio months ago, I thought I had better check out the album Ocean Eyes. It was my type of song, a bit whimsical with a good melody and chorus. I reserved it from the library but was number 384 on the waiting list (no exaggeration)! So Lisa just barely picked it up on Tuesday, along with a bunch of children's dinosaur books for Sadie. We have to refresh them on a weekly basis or else we'd go insane reading her the same things over and over. By the end of the week, Lisa can read Sadie the books with her eyes closed (again, not an exaggeration).

Here's my beef with the album: The single got my expectations up and the rest of the album just doesn't compare. Sure, the whimsy reappears in a few other songs like "The Saltwater Room," but it all ends up sounding like it's been done before. "Dental Care" sounds like recent Fountains of Wayne, "Umbrella Beach" like Keane, and the rest of it like Postal Service. In fact "The Saltwater Room" seems to totally rip off Postal Service's "Nothing Better" except with less interesting lyrics.

The "Fireflies" single and the band on paper seem similar to bands I really like like Postal Service, Phoenix, and Imogen Heap. But where these bands have interesting singers (Ben Gibbard is one of family's favorites - even Sadie digs him), Owl City's singer seems electronic and emotionless. This works alright for the whimsical songs, but most of the song lyrics try to sound personal and that just doesn't come across. It sounds like Timbaland already remixed his voice. Then again, maybe that was the goal and I'm just comparing him to the wrong styles. In any case, it was disappointing.

Pick up "Fireflies" and "The Saltwater Room" if you do the iTunes thing, but if you are old school like me and judge a band based on their albums rather than singles, skip it.

Imogen Heap - Ellipse

25 degrees and clear; cold but in my puffy jacket and brown stocking cap, I was doing fine

I am a bit of a choir boy. I started out at Cedar Heights Junior High, and then sang my way through another junior high and two high schools. I even did a zero hour jazz choir class my senior year. Maybe that's why I have found myself drawn to bands with singers that use their voices as instruments. Bands like the Beach Boys and mid to late career Beatles. Another contemporary favorite is Nada Surf. A lot of good bands seem to use their voice as a means to get a message accross and the accompinament as a way to make it sound good. Voice driven bands are different. The music may be great, the lyrics may be poetic or striking, but what sets them apart are that the singers really add to the melodies. I find myself humming to the singer's melody lines as much as the guitarist's.

My brother-in-law introduced Lisa and I to Imogen Heap a few years ago. But it wasn't until this walk that I really realized why I liked her music so much, the melodies she sings and her voice makes this music beautiful. Here's a song from her latest album, Ellipse:



Sorry if this post seems disjointed. Lost was on TV. I love this show. Claire has gone crazy!