7 Reasons I Love Owl City's music

I have become enchanted with Owl City's music, and got to hear the band live last night at Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas. As a composer and producer, I have given a lot of thought to analyzing why Adam Young's music gets through to me the way it does. I have come to realize that his writing, producing and performing craft embrace some serious values in great music, all the more true in contrast to what I feel is an overall loss of these values in so much of what I hear these days in the music world.

So, here's what I've come up with:

1. The Art of Lyric Writing - Many have mourned the alleged death of the great art of lyric writing. Though Broadway and Country have, and will continue to have, great lyricists, many rock, pop and soul songs have suffered from a lack of great lyrics. Owl City's lyrics are clever and thoughtful. Adjectives are chosen wisely, yielding rich word-painting. Thoughts come out of nowhere, unexpectedly taking the listener in an entirely different direction than what might have been predicted. Each song tells a story, carrying the listener through twists and turns that are anything but safe. The adventurous lyrics risk corniness, sentimentality, and cuteness, but yet the end result is ultimately so much more satisfying.

2. Rhyming - Although I could have put this in the preceding paragraph on lyric writing, I appreciate thoughtful and clever rhyming so much that here I feel it deserves its own category. With so much soft rhyme (vowels only, or even similar vowels, and little regard for consonants or blends) in music today, and often complete disregard for rhyme, lyrics so tightly written and rhymed are a pure joy to listen to.

3. Melody - Again, great melody stands out in simple contrast to not-so-great melody. Less than stellar melodies are often characterized by limited range, excessive rhythmic simplicity (read: boredom), lack of curve and contour, excessive repetition. (And for the record, I'm not sure that a string of repeated pitches in the same rhythm, though common, is necessarily all that creative.) Owl City's melodies are anything but--angular, exciting, interesting, not necessarily easy to sing immediately, and yet totally memorable and unique.

4. The Instrumental Hook - Owl City has revived the instrumental hook. Again, by contrast, many songs use them, but they are so simplistic, repetitive, and unimaginative that they can easily be forgotten. Not these: the hooks here are unique, interesting, and memorable. In addition (and this is rare) they work instrumentally or sung with words, a tall order for any writer.

5. Dynamic Range - With sudden changes from very loud to very soft occurring instantaneously, these songs have great dramatic interest. A song shouldn't be loud (or soft) from start to finish; good music grows, swells, has direction, and moves the listener along with it. Adam's music builds sonic "walls of sound," and suddenly drops to just piano and transparent drum loops, or distant, processed vocals over string figures. And then the process reverses, and we're back at a full, almost orchestral deluge of sound again. He harnesses the power of his dynamic range and uses it to his advantage.

6. Synths that sound like synths, used as synths - In a world where synthesizers and samplers often "replace" live instruments (strings, guitars, drums, etc.), it is refreshing to hear synths that sound like synths. Lead sounds, bell sounds, great synth basses, beautiful pads, all used without apology. Having been a fan of synths while working as a musician in the 1980's (when synths were coming into their heyday), I love how they're used here, doing what they do best--hooky figures, towering cascades of sound, punchy rhythmic figures, and full, rich bass sounds.

7. Sonic Clarity and Transparency - WIth so much rhythmic energy and complexity in this music, sloppy reverb or blasting, distorted guitar just won't cut it. What's needed here is clean and clear mixing and processing, that leaves room for the spaces between the notes. I think this quality makes all the others possible--this kind of music doesn't work without strict attention to detail and separation in the mix. I also think that the relatively dry treatment of some of the sounds aids this clarity.

So that's it--just a quick rundown of some things that I value very much in good, enjoyable, thoughtful, and memorable music, and the music of Owl City hits a home run in all of these areas. I have read unflattering reviews of the music of Owl City, of course, one man's treasure is another's trash; I certainly respect any thoughtful review. But this music finds a way straight to my heart, and though much of that is purely subjective and organic, there are some very concrete reasons why it works as well as it does. My hat's off to Adam and his immense creativity.