Owl City's Adam Young has had a very turbulent decade following his magnum opus, 2015's "Mobile Orchestra". He did a series of scores in 2016 (which reused Port Blue tracks, which isn't a bad thing. It's just lazy.), and he began teasing "Cinematic" in 2017, following with its release in 2018. Now, Cinematic was awful, and it felt like Adam needed another "All Things Bright and Beautiful" to pick up the momentum lost with Cinematic. It took 5 ... read more

Following "Mobile Orchestra", Adam Young needed a break. Putting Owl City on hold, he would disband from his record label and put out a series of passion project scores throughout 2016. It was only in 2017 when we began seeing the hints of the highly anticipated follow-up to Mobile Orchestra. Of course, as Adam began releasing more singles, the hype slowly and painfully died. All of that culminated with "Cinematic", which we were cursed with in 2018. We open with "Fiji ... read more

2014's "Ultraviolet" follows a 2-year hiatus following The Midsummer Station. And, oh boy, is it good. We open with "Beautiful Times", the Lindsey Stirling feature. It's a hopeful and inspirational song about persevering through depression, and it's instrumental is so beautifully hopeful. "Up All Night" is a beautiful song about falling in love with a stranger that you could never be with, and Adam Young pictures it as falling in love with "a ... read more

Adam Young decided to take a little break following "The Midsummer Station". After all, he made an album that was near perfection. In 2013, he released an acoustic EP that featured three acoustic versions of some Midsummer Station favorites, alongside some unreleased B-sides. It was only in 2014 where we started to see his vision for a new album. The "Ultraviolet" EP dwarfed anything Adam had made before, taking what was wrong with The Midsummer Station and fixing it in a ... read more

With "All Things Bright and Beautiful", Owl City's Adam Young had regained momentum and focus. During the subsequent tour, when he began creating the follow-up, it was obvious that he needed to make an album just as, if not better, than All Things Bright and Beautiful. The album that was created followed ATBAB in 2012, and that was "The Midsummer Station". We open with "Dreams and Disasters", which takes EDM influence and sets the mood for the album perfectly. ... read more

Owl City's Adam Young had lost momentum with 2009's "Ocean Eyes", an album that was fine enough but lacked the qualities of his debut that kept me from returning to more than the final few tracks. Adam had lost momentum, and he needed focus. In 2010, Adam released the song "To The Sky", a very catchy guitar-driven song for the Zack Snyder Owl movie. It was a great song, and it showed great promise for what was to come. In 2011, we were graced with "All Things ... read more

After Owl City's Adam Young got signed to Universal Republic, we got his second album, "Ocean Eyes", a little over a year following "Maybe I'm Dreaming". Ocean Eyes attempts to be more grandiose than Dreaming, but I feel it falls flat with that. We open with "Cave In", a song that tries to pull an "On The Wing", but it's a song that I've never liked. "The Bird and The Worm" is a nice love song that is a great change of pace ... read more

"Maybe I'm Dreaming" is Owl City's debut album, and I think it improves on his debut extended play, 2007's "Of June", in every way possible. We open with "On the Wing", a very nice and dreamy opener. Gone are the weird autotune-esque vocal effects of the aforementioned EP, and in are the true ranges Owl City frontman Adam Young can sing. "Rainbow Veins" has always been a personal favorite, with it's childlike instrumental and very ... read more

The debut extended play by Owl City, also known as Adam Young, is a strong start for the indie-pop project. "Swimming in Miami" is a good opener, and I love the lyrics and melody. However, I'm not too big a fan of whatever vocal effects Adam has on in this song. "Captains & Cruise Ships" is a fun bouncy track, and "Designer Skyline" is a nice change of pace, but I've never liked it all too much. "Panda Bear" is my personal favorite song on ... read more

Singer-Songwriter Sam Beam’s fourth studio effort is very interesting to say the least. It’s a very beautiful, yet very dense album. Taking inspiration from heavy electronics, I think “Kiss Each Other Clean” is the most interesting album in the folk space since Sufjan’s “The Age of Adz”. This is an album you should definitely check out.

Connecticut duo MGMT’s third album is a dense and lyrically heavy album, for all the good reasons. Opener “Alien Days” starts slow before it delves into marching drums and frontman Andrew VanWyngarden’s excellent vocal range. “Cool Song No. 2” introduces more dense compositions, which is expanded upon in “Mystery Disease”. “Introspection” is a beautiful cover of the Faine Jade classic, and “Your Life is a Lie” is a fun, ... read more

"Married On A Hill" is simply incredible. Even though it ultimately went unreleased (TRAGIC, I KNOW!!), Married On A Hill is still one of AJR's best songs. It was initially recorded for Living Room, the bands second album, and was intended for the 2014 tracklist of the album. However, the song was scrapped when they delayed the album and altered the tracklist. The song was still played live during the 2014/2015 season, luckily. The studio version would ultimately leak in 2020, ... read more

Following AJR's sophomore studio album, 2015's Living Room, nobody knew what the NYC brotherly trio would do next. It was with the 2015 non-album single "Let The Games Begin" where brothers Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met gave us a peek into what their third album would sound like. While Let The Games Begin, and the later 2015 single "Call My Dad" (which would later be on 2017's "The Click"), would not end up on what would be the bands fourth EP, "What ... read more

In 2014, AJR announced they had delayed their sophomore album, Living Room, to February 2015 from the initial August 2014 release date. In the meantime, they blessed us with Infinity, their third extended play. In lots of ways, it holds up just as well as their masterpiece of a second EP, 2013's 6foot1, while bringing new things to the table. Opener and title track "Infinity" gives a bombastic-sounding edge to 6foot1's "Growing Old on Bleecker Street" with ... read more

AJR's second extended play is a sight to behold. Coming just a year after their debut self-titled EP, 6foot1 improves upon the strengths of their debut EP in a way that exceeds expectations. The opener, "I'm Ready", is infectiously catchy with an endlessly lovable chorus, incredible verses, and a clever use of a SpongeBob SquarePants sample. "Woody Allen", despite being unfortunately named, is still a really good song, with one of the earliest uses of ... read more

The debut from Colorado dream pop collective Candy Claws is a very full-formed debut, featuring sounds that would be revisited on later records (“Snowy Shores”), and memorable sounds that it can call its own (“The Sun is My Girl”, “Island Grows”).

Candy Claws brings us to a wonderland of nostalgia with their third and, at the time of writing, final studio album. It’s a very lush album, with a loose concept about a girl and a seal exploring the Mesozoic period. My favorite song off of the record is the opener “Into the Deep Time (One Sun)”, a very layered sounding track with a wistful vocal performance. Songs like “Fell in Love (At the Water)” and “Birth of the Flower (Seagreen)” are slower and ... read more

The third studio album from New Jersey quartet My Chemical Romance is sure a special one. The concept is simple, a dude is dying from cancer and is guided into the afterlife by this mythical “black parade”. While, sure, this album can be sad at times (“Cancer”, “The End”), it’s also quite a powerful and anthemic album (“Welcome to the Black Parade”, “Famous Last Words”). I think that’s what makes it so good. Of course, you ... read more

Congratulations, the third album from Connecticut duo Andrew VanWyngarden & Ben Goldwasser, is certainly amazing. Coming off of Oracular Spectacular, nobody knew what MGMT would do next. And Congratulations was the best case scenario. It's a much, much better album than Oracular. "Flash Delirium" and "It's Working" are lovely manic tracks that show MGMT is not afraid to get weird. "Brian Eno" and "Song for Dan Treacy", named for the two ... read more

MGMT's second studio album, "Oracular Spectacular", is incredible. It's ambitious, it's exciting, it's youthful, it's fun. It feels like an evening beach run with your friends, exactly what the album cover implies. The bombastic "Time to Pretend" opens the album, and follows with the youthful and fun "Weekend Wars". "The Youth" is a nice little song that feels like a night spent with your girlfriend, and "Electric Feel" ... read more