All Things Bright And Beautiful

Megalopolis of sound, Owl City

Owl City is a project of multiinstrumentalist Adam Young, and Owl City appeared due to both the musician’s talent and insomnia. Experimenting at nights with various instruments, sound effects and techniques of processing, Adam Young created Owl City. The result of these experiments turned out to be so many-sided that it is better to listen to it at least once than read numerous opinions and critics’ reviews. Owl City is often considered to be a part of an alternative scene, and that is pretty much it. Adam’s songs differ from each other as soon as there are more elements of electronica in some of them, while others include more pop-music or rock. However they are all united by soft and melodious sound. Young found his style quite fast, but he decided not to stop and continued searching for new sides of sound. Absence of limits gives to a musician almost endless possibilities to self-fulfillment, and Adam’s two studio attempts proved that he can actually create amazing songs. Well, now we got the performer’s fresh record that was titled All Things Bright And Beautiful.

Soft All Things Bright And Beautiful

In general All Things Bright And Beautiful is done in familiar to Young style synthpop. The singer remained faithful to his chosen genre, but he is also interested in many other styles, which pleases listeners a lot. Thereby on All Things Bright And Beautiful you will find elements of folk, indie-rock and even hip-hop. But first things first. The long play starts in a tranquil and positive way, with the good help of a song The Real World. The following composition Deer In The Headlights is more energetic and it sound bright indeed, flaunting with a mix of rock and powerful synthesizers. All in all, All Things Bright And Beautiful sounds soft and energetic in virtue of the singer’s vocals and, of course, great arrangements. “Do not underestimate synthesizers and keyboards” – that phrase could easily become a motto for All Things Bright And Beautiful. There was also enough room for pleasant surprises: Young recorded the composition Alligator Sky with Shawn Chrystopher, so it included hip-hop recitative. That collaboration proved to be original and interesting.

Synthpop and other ingredients

In spite of all the additions of various music styles, the synthpop has always been the basic element of Adam Young’s art. Actually, synthpop still has its position. Soft, slow or fast, but always unique. Dreams Don't Turn To Dust, The Yacht Club and other songs from the musician’s new album can be excellent examples of that genre. There is no doubt that life-asserting lyrics, pleasant melodies and delicate, sometimes even tender arrangements will find their listeners. However sometimes it seems that All Things Bright And Beautiful was created for listening in pretty small amounts. The songs are actually good and they had been recorded with love, but probably synthpop has much in common with syrup. It is tasty, while when it is too much, it becomes sweet or even saccharine. There is a good saying that more than enough is too much. Well anyways that does not mean that All Things Bright And Beautiful is difficult for perception. Perhaps it will be a bit difficult to listen to it for twenty four hours though.