name	Ocean Eyes
type	studio
artist	Owl City
cover	Owl-city-ocean-eyes-2009.jpg
released	July 14, 2009
genre	Pop, Indietronica, New waveSynth-pop, Alternative
length	42:52
label	Universal Republic
producer	Adam Young
last album	''Maybe I'm Dreaming''(2008)
this album	''Ocean Eyes''(2009)
next album	''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' (2011)
misc	}}

''Ocean Eyes'' is the second full-length album by electropop act Owl City. It was made available for download on July 14, 2009, on iTunes, and on September 1, 2009 it was released in stores with a photograph of the Burj Al Arab as its album artwork. A vinyl edition and a two-disc Deluxe Edition of the album was also released. The Deluxe Edition was released on January 26, 2010, and features three new tracks and a remix of "Hello Seattle". The album features guest vocals by Relient K vocalist, Matt Thiessen, on the songs "Fireflies", "Cave In", "The Bird and the Worm" and "Tidal Wave".

Background

On July 14, 2009, the song "Fireflies" was chosen as the Single of the Week by the iTunes music store. This led to a huge success as the song was downloaded over 650,000 times and helped the album reach #2 on the US store. This success also led to the record company pushing back the release date of the physical copy of the album from July 28, 2009 to September 1, 2009. Adam Young, the founder of Owl City told ''The Sun'' that "Cave In" was especially dear to his heart as "that song captures in just a few words, all my hopes and dreams." The album sold approximately 18,000 copies digitally in its debut week. The album has sold around 609,000 copies and reached the top ten in the US peaking at #8. The same week its lead single "Fireflies" topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Eventually, ''Ocean Eyes'' climbed to number one on iTunes after the album price was lowered for a limited period of time.

The album has slightly modified versions of songs from previous albums, namely "Hello Seattle" from ''Of June'' and "On The Wing" and "The Saltwater Room" from ''Maybe I'm Dreaming''.

Critical reception

''Ocean Eyes'' has received mixed reviews from critics, based on an aggregate Metacritic score of 53/100, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". The album gained some positive reviews, including ''Entertainment Weekly'' which gave it a B+ and said that it was filled with memorable choruses and that the highlight song was "Dental Care". Jesus Freak Hideout also was favorable towards the album; the review highlighted the album's musical style, saying that it had "dreamy lyrics and open soundscapes."

However, on the other hand, ''Rolling Stone'' claimed ''Ocean Eyes'' as "disappointing", only awarding it 2/5 stars. The magazine especially criticized the slower songs, saying that forgettable tracks like "On the Wing" were "just mush". Allmusic also gave the album an a total of 2.5/5, stating "Ocean Eyes ultimately winds up too sugary for its own good, though, having focused on dessert without giving its listeners any sort of meaty, substantive entrée. A handful of ballads add some sense of variety to the album's pace, but Owl City is largely a vehicle for the one song Adam Young knows how to make."

Singles

"Fireflies" was released as the album's first single on July 14, 2009 in the US and on January 8, 2010 in the UK. It climbed the Billboard Hot 100 slowly until reaching #7 and leaping to #1 the following week. "Fireflies" topped the ''Billboard'' Chart for two non-consecutive weeks, as well as topping the iTunes Top 100 Chart for several weeks. "Fireflies" was originally released as a free US iTunes digital download the week the album had its digital release in the US, which could have contributed to the single's massive success. Even now that ''Fireflies'' is three years old, it continues to make the top 10 most downloaded songs in many contries. "Fireflies" also reached No.1 on the Official UK Singles Chart on January 24, 2010.

"Vanilla Twilight" was released as the album's second US single on January 26, 2010 to radio, the same day that the deluxe edition of ''Ocean Eyes'' hit stores. During the same week that "Fireflies" topped the Hot 100, "Vanilla Twilight" debuted at #95. It has since re-entered and re-peaked on the Hot 100 at #72 on the week ending January 9, 2010.

"Umbrella Beach" was released as the album's second UK single on May 17, 2010. "Umbrella Beach" was originally released promotionally on November 19, 2009, preceding the release of the official first single "Fireflies." An exclusive remix created by Kenny Hayes is included on the single release. There is also a music video available for it. Unlike "Fireflies" and "Vanilla Twilight", Adam does not appear in the video aside from a few photos, which may be disappointing to some.

Digital singles

"Strawberry Avalanche" and "Hot Air Balloon" were released as digital-only promotional singles in June 2009, leading up to the release of the album, though they did not appear on the album.

"Sunburn" was released as a digital-only promotional single for the soundtrack of ''90210'' in October 2009, and it was also released free to people who bought "Ocean Eyes" during a span of several weeks of December 2009.

Track listing

Standard edition

{{tracklist | writing_credits = yes | all_writing = Adam Young, except where noted | title1 = Cave In | note1 = | writer1 = | length1 = 4:02 | title2 = The Bird and the Worm | note2 = | writer2 = Adam Young, Matthew Thiessen | length2 = 3:27 | title3 = Hello Seattle | writer3 = | length3 = 2:47 | title4 = Umbrella Beach | writer4 = | length4 = 3:50 | title5 = The Saltwater Room | note5 = featuring Breanne Duren | writer5 = | length5 = 4:02 | title6 = Dental Care | writer6 = | length6 = 3:11 | title7 = Meteor Shower | note7 = | writer7 = | length7 = 2:14 | title8 = On the Wing | writer8 = | length8 = 5:01 | title9 = Fireflies | note9 = | writer9 = | length9 = 3:48 | title10 = The Tip of the Iceberg | writer10 = | length10 = 3:23 | title11 = Vanilla Twilight | writer11 = | length11 = 3:52 | title12 = Tidal Wave | note12 = featuring Matthew Thiessen of Relient K | writer12 = Adam Young, Matthew Thiessen | length12 = 3:10 }} {{tracklist | headline = iTunes bonus tracks | writing_credits = yes | title13 = Hello Seattle | note13 = Remix | writer13 = | length13 = 5:53 | title14 = If My Heart Was a House | writer14 = | length14 = 4:06 }}

Deluxe edition

{{tracklist | headline = Disc 2 | writing_credits = no | all_writing = Adam Young | title1 = Hot Air Balloon | length1 = 3:35 | title2 = Butterfly Wings | length2 = 2:54 | title3 = Rugs from Me to You | length3 = 1:27 | title4 = Sunburn | length4 = 3:47 | title5 = Hello Seattle | note5 = Remix | length5 = 5:53 | title6 = If My Heart Was a House | length6 = 4:06 | title7 = Strawberry Avalanche | length7 = 3:18 | title8 = Fireflies (Adam Young Remix) | note8 = exclusively on iTunes | length8 = 3:12 }}

Personnel

; Owl City

Adam Young – vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, producer, engineer

; Additional musicians and production

Breanne Duren – additional vocals on tracks 5 & 8

Austin Tofte – additional vocals on track 8

Matthew Thiessen – additional vocals on tracks on 1, 2, 9, 12 & 14, production on tracks 2, 9, 12

Melisa Morgan – additional vocals on tracks 7 & 10

Jolie Lindholm – additional vocals on track 7

Phil Peterson – cello on track 1, 4, 8, 9 & 10

Steve Bursky – producer, management

Ted Jensen – mastering

Christopher Kornmann – art direction

Imran Khan – artwork

John Goodmanson – audio mixer

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

! Chart (2009–10)	! Peakposition
Canadian Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
German Albums Chart
Swiss Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
U.S. ''Billboard'' Dance/Electronic Albums
U.S. ''Billboard'' Top Rock Albums
U.S. ''Billboard'' Alternative Albums

Year-end charts

!Chart (2010)	!Position

Certifications

References

Category:2009 albums Category:Owl City albums

es:Ocean Eyes fr:Ocean Eyes it:Ocean Eyes lv:Ocean Eyes nn:Ocean Eyes pl:Ocean Eyes pt:Ocean Eyes fi:Ocean Eyes sv:Ocean Eyes tr:Ocean Eyes vi:Ocean Eyes

name	Owl City
landscape	Yes
background	group_or_band
alias	Adam Young
genre	Electronica, Synthpop
origin	Owatonna, Minnesota, United States
years active	2007–present
label	Universal Republic
associated acts	Sky Sailing, Swimming With Dolphins, Matt Thiessen, Lights, Breanne Düren
website
current members	Adam Young }}

Owl City is an American electronica musical project by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young formed in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. Young created the project while experimenting with music in his parents' basement. Like many musicians who achieved success in the late 2000s, Owl City developed a following on the social networking site Myspace before signing with Universal Republic in 2008.

After two independent releases, Owl City gained mainstream popularity with the 2009 major label debut album ''Ocean Eyes'', which spawned the quadruple-platinum hit single "Fireflies". The album was certified Platinum in the United States in April 2010.

In 2011, Owl City released his third studio album, ''All Things Bright and Beautiful''.

Early years (2007–2009)

Suffering from insomnia while working loading Coca-Cola trucks in his hometown Owatonna, Minnesota, Young turned to composing music. He began uploading songs recorded in his parents' basement to Myspace. He started to receive favorable attention for his music and then helped cultivate this nascent fanbase by being an open and accessible web presence, responding to any messages he received and constantly posting blogs. His manager Steve Burksy later highlighted the significance of Young's engaging online manner in building his following saying: "People feel like they know him, like they've got a direct connection to him because of how he approaches his connection with them online." Through a deal with the digital aggregator CD Baby, he then started making the songs available for sale through iTunes. In 2007, Owl City released an EP titled ''Of June'', followed by the 2008 release of the album ''Maybe I'm Dreaming''. ''Of June'' reached No. 15 on the ''Billboard'' Electronic Albums chart, and ''Maybe I'm Dreaming'' peaked on the same chart at No. 13.

The viral phenomenon that was building through Myspace caught the attention of Universal Republic presidents Avery and Monte Lipman who approached Young with a view to signing the artist. Republic recommended Young partner up with 27-year-old manager Steve Bursky of Foundations Artist Management and the two began working together in late 2008. When later asked by HitQuarters why the label chose him for a major label act given his relative inexperience, Burksy said:

"I think they saw Owl City as representing the future of our business. This idea of a kid in a tiny town in rural U.S. being able to make songs in his basement that sound like Top 40 radio could never have happened ten years ago. By hiring a young management company who understands the business circa 2011 over a seasoned industry vet, who might not understand the online spaces well, showed a lot of understanding of where this kid was going to end up having success."

Owl City's label deal with Universal Republic was finally confirmed in February 2009. According to Bursky there was initially some disagreement about the direction Owl City should follow, telling HitQuarters: "They were ready to send him into the studio with big producers and polish him up to try to become this thing that he wasn't. But we put our foot down and said, 'Look, the reason you signed this kid is because it’s working. Whatever it is about him - his music, his interaction with his fans, his brilliance in the online space - these things are connecting with people, and as soon as you change that you lose what’s special about this artist.' To their credit, they really listened and they got it."

''Ocean Eyes'' (2009–2010)

''Ocean Eyes'', Owl City's third full-length album and major label debut, was released on iTunes on July 14, 2009, with the physical release following on July 28, 2009. The album debuted at No. 27 on the Billboard 200. Owl City has released three official singles from this album: "Umbrella Beach", "Vanilla Twilight" and "Fireflies". "Fireflies" topped the US and Canadian charts. ''Ocean Eyes'' reached the top ten on the US album charts, topped the US electronic charts, and also reached Amazon MP3's top 10 most downloaded album list. By April 2010, it was certified Platinum in the United States. On January 24, 2010, Owl City reached the No. 1 spot in the UK Top 40 Singles chart with "Fireflies". The song "Tidal Wave" also received significant airplay on Christian music radio stations. On January 2, 2011, it was revealed "Fireflies" was the 20th most downloaded song of all time in the UK.

Young is joined by Breanne Düren on several tracks; the most noted being "The Saltwater Room". Owl City's live band consists of Breanne Düren (background vocals/keyboards), Casey Brown (drums), Laura Musten (violin), Hannah Schroeder (cello), and Daniel Jorgensen (vibes).

Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen has toured and collaborated with Owl City on several tracks, including "Fireflies", where Matt can be heard providing the backup vocals. Young also produced Relient K's song "Terminals".

"Fireflies" was released as a free download on the game ''Tap Tap Revenge 3'' by Tapulous. Prior to the July 14, 2009 internet release of ''Ocean Eyes'', and the "Fireflies" single, Steve Hoover was hired as a director for a music video for "Fireflies". The video was to have had an exclusive premiere on MySpace, but had been leaked onto YouTube and Dailymotion hours earlier. "Fireflies" became a big sleeper hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the week ending November 7, 2009.

Owl City is featured on ''Soundtrack 90210'' with a song titled "Sunburn", which was released on October 13, 2009. Owl City has toured with The Scene Aesthetic, Lights, John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Brooke Waggoner. He was also guest featured in the soundtrack to Tim Burton's ''Alice in Wonderland'' with a song entitled "The Technicolor Phase" that had already been featured in his debut album.

In 2010, Young revealed a new musical project known as Sky Sailing, which moved away from his usual electronica genre of music and introduced acoustic guitar and piano accompaniments into his work. The unrefined tracks were recorded in the summer of 2007 before he began making music as Owl City. His first album under this new project is entitled ''An Airplane Carried Me to Bed'', and was released July 13, 2010 via iTunes.

In May 2010, Adam Young collaborated with high-profile British electronic composer, producer, musician, and songwriter Nick Bracegirdle. Under his Chicane alias, Bracegirdle released the single "Middledistancerunner" on August 1, 2010 featuring Adam Young on vocals. This is the first single from the fourth Chicane album ''Giants''. He also worked with famed Dutch producer Armin van Buuren, appearing on a track called 'Youtopia' from the van Buuren album ''Mirage'' on September 10, 2010.

On September 21, 2010 "To the Sky" was officially released via iTunes on the soundtrack for Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole.

On October 25, 2010, Young released a cover version of the praise and worship song "In Christ Alone" as a streaming mp3 on his website,

On November 13, 2010, a new album was also released for one of his other musical projects, "Windsor Airlift", called "Flight" on iTunes.

On November 23, 2010, a new Christmas single called "Peppermint Winter" was released. A preview had been released the previous week on Facebook.

''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' (2010–2011)

Production on Young's third studio album began around mid-2010, with Young being announced as the executive producer of the album.

On October 18, 2010 Young wrote an entry on his blog regarding his third studio album, saying that the album was nearing completion.

In February 2011, the title of the album was announced to be ''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' and that the album would be released on May 17. However, on April 6, Young released a statement on his website, along with lengthy previews of four of his songs (Dreams Don't Turn to Dust, Alligator Sky Featuring Shawn Chrystopher, Galaxies, and Deer in the Headlights), that the release date for ''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' would be pushed back to June 14.

On March 22, Alligator Sky was released as the lead single from the album on ''iTunes''.

In Late March and Early April, tickets went on sale for The All Things Bright and Beautiful World Tour, and All Things Bright and Beautiful became available for preorder.

On April 19, Galaxies was released as the second single from the album.

On May 6, the music video for Alligator Sky was released. Young discussed the concept in a making-of video posted on Owl City's VEVO account, "The concept is basically about these two guys who are leaving Earth. Rather than it being this very dark post-apocalyptic vibe, it's very optimistic, and so it's like people are excited to leave earth."

On May 23, Deer in the Headlights, the third single from the album, was released on iTunes.

On June 14, All Things Bright and Beautiful was released on iTunes. Although only a few days prior on May 20, almost all of the album leaked onto the internet.

On June 30, the music video for 'Deer in the Headlights' was released. It features Young driving through the night in the DMC DeLorean featured in the Back to the Future trilogy and Canadian musician Lights makes a cameo appearance in the video.

On July 19, "Lonely Lullaby" was released as a single on iTunes, which was previously available only to Owl City Galaxy members.

Young was interviewed in the August issue of Cliché Magazine. He also appeared on the cover of the magazine and the issue also featured some of Young's very own art work.

On July 21, at the Club Nokia concert in Los Angeles, Young announced that the concert was being filming for a Live DVD to be released by the holiday season.

On November 28, the music video for "Youtopia", by Armin van Buuren Featuring Adam Young, was released on YouTube.

Fourth Studio Album (2011-Present)

In Young's final tour dates of 2011, he said that he had begun the recording process of his fourth studio album. He also performed a new song entitled "I Hope You Think of Me".

On January 2, 2012, Young wrote an entry on his blog regarding his fourth studio album. Young said that he would be collaborating with more producers and songwriters, also saying that his new record "Marks a flying leap in this direction". Young expects the album to be released around late Summer to Fall 2012.

Musical styles and influences

Owl City's music is described as indietronica and synthpop and is often described as belonging under the broad "alternative music" label. Young has stated that he is inspired by disco and European electronic music, as well as instrumental genres such as drone, ambient, and post-rock. He cites his biggest influences as Johnathon Ford of Unwed Sailor and Thomas Newman. Young also incorporates a large amount of his Christian faith into his music, since he is a vocal Christian. Young's faith is evident on the new album, "All Things Bright and Beautiful", especially in "Galaxies". Explaining why the faith-filled song was added to the mix, he said, "I feel like if I were ever to hide the fact that that’s what’s so important to me, it would be a crime, that I should probably be put in jail for that."

Owl City also has been compared to The Postal Service, often critically, for his combination of fuzzy synths, ironic lyrics and use of female guest singers. Pitchfork.com goes far enough to say that "The surprise No. 1 single in the country, Owl City's 'Fireflies,' jacks the Postal Service in such a bald-faced, obvious manner that getting into specifics feels redundant at best and tacky at worst." In response to the suggestion that his work is derivative, Adam Young suggested in a 2009 interview with The New York Times that ''Ocean Eyes'' is perhaps the "next chapter" after American band The Postal Service: "The Postal Service released a record in 2003, and that was it. There was really nothing to compare it to until some one else came along and wrote the next chapter. Maybe that's this record. Maybe that's this band."

Other projects

Young also produces music under a wide variety of other projects, which include Port Blue, Dolphin Park, Windsor Airlift, Insect Airport, Seagull Orchestra, Novel, Aquarium, Sky Sailing, and Swimming with Dolphins. Most of these projects were started before Owl City propelled Young to fame. Many of these projects were formed alongside some friends, including Austin Tofte of Swimming with Dolphins.

Young was featured on the track "All About Us" by He Is We released on August 29, 2011, on iTunes. He was also featured on the track "First Noel" on TobyMac's album ''Christmas in Diverse City'' released October 4, 2011.

Band members

;Current members

Adam Young – lead vocals, programming, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, guitars, bass guitar, drums, percussion, vibraphone, accordion

;Current touring members While Young writes, composes, records, and produces all of Owl City's music, during live performances he is accompanied by a group of supporting musicians:

Breanne Düren – keyboards, backing vocals

Daniel Jorgensen – guitar, vibraphone

Laura Musten – violin

Hannah Schroeder – cello

Casey Brown – drums

Concert tours

Discography

;Extended Plays

''Of June'' (2007)

;Studio albums

''Maybe I'm Dreaming'' (2008)

''Ocean Eyes'' (2009)

''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' (2011)

''Untitled Fourth Studio Album'' (2012)

References

External links

Owl City Official Website

Category:Musical groups from Minnesota Category:American indie rock groups Category:American New Wave musical groups Category:Electronic music groups from Minnesota

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