Today’s Hyperbole: Owl City Are Destroying America

Normally, I don’t chime in much about music I don’t like. I know this is much to Christopher Weingarten’s chagrin, but I don’t consider myself a music critic. At least not one talented or skilled enough to effectively dissect the ins and outs of why a record is terrific or terrible. I believe in the value of a music critic, and am genuinely saddened at the seemingly decreased opportunities for a genuine music journalist. I consider what I do as cheerleading, really. I hear something I like, and I write about how it made me feel when I listened to it. If something didn’t perk me up or get my toe tapping, I feel like it’s mostly a waste to even mention it.

There are exceptions, though. My lengthy rant about MSTRKFRT’s last album was inspired by what I’d classify as a passionate disdain, and I found myself taken over by that same emotion upon hearing this new song by Owl City. To call it an obvious Postal Service ripoff is beyond stating the obvious, isn’t it? They aren’t even trying to mask it. They also aren’t masking or are incapable of masking the fact that they clearly have no idea what made The Postal Service work.

Ben Gibbard is often accused of being overly sentimental or cloying, but this guy makes him sound like Mark E Smith. For example, I always thought ‘Sleeping In’ was a sweet but schmaltzy tune, but Gibbard’s secret weapon is balancing out the maudlin elements in his songs with something more substantial. I’ll put it this way, I don’t recall him ever being reduced to singing about ‘getting hugs from 10,000 lightning bugs’. And Jimmy Tamborello may love synthetic sounds, but he knows how to make the coldest digital signal sound like the warmest, most inviting siren call. This Owl City stuff is just indifferent 8-bit background sound. It’s all schmaltz. And very deliberately so, which is what really bothers me. Not to mention this somehow went Billboard #1!!!

What do you think? Am I crazy? I didn’t even want to post an mp3 because I dislike the song that much. And okay okay, I do understand how this went to #1. It’s airy, uplifting and easy-to-digest pop, basically the aural equivalent of Pepto Bismol. And when I was around 7 or 8, I used to drink Pepto Bismol, without being sick to my stomach. Seriously. I’d just drink Pepto Bismol like it was a soda. I don’t know why, but I know at some point it became distasteful. So maybe I’m just too old to like this.

Tags: owl city