Oh Deer!

So if you haven't heard yet, the release date for All Things Bright and Beautiful has been moved down to June 14th.
(It'll make exam time a lot less depressing, that's for sure.)

http://owlcitymusic.com/atbab


And make sure to vote for your favourite song - he's released nice juicy previews of Dreams Don't Turn to Dust, Alligator Sky (which is already out, buy it on iTunes!), Galaxies, and Deer in the Headlights.

I suppose what I've got here is my first impression of these songs.



Dreams Don't Turn to Dust

The first time I heard it, it was that little segment in the "Making of All Things Bright and Beautiful" video. What I really love about this song is how dynamic his voice is, and that little bloopy sound during the chorus.

"Splash down in the silver screen
Into a deep dramatic scene.
I swim through the theatre -
Or maybe, I'm just a dreamer."

However, I sorta miss that electronic feel to the music - most of it seems to be that clubby beat, violin, and guitar now.


Alligator Sky

It starts off with a revving-up sound, and perhaps it's necessary to boot up all that awesomeness. I'm pretty sure everyone's heard this song by now.

"Where was I when the rockets came to life
And carried you away, into the alligator sky?
Even though I'll never know what's up ahead,
I'm never letting go."
The first time I heard it, one of the things that became obvious to me was that he sounded... different. It took me a while to place it, but I finally have it: confidence.
Every time it plays I stop, drop whatever I'm holding (unless it's a hot bowl of soup) and stare out the window, smiling. It's got that dreamy, surreal and floaty quality to it, and the rap "grounds" it for me, I suppose, as well as adding a bit more of a beat to it.


Galaxies

The preview starts with a bunch of violins making things all intense.
...and then the beat kicks in and all of a sudden your foot can't keep still...

"Dear God,
You're the only North star
I would follow this far..."

I was going to vote for this one, because of that awesome clubby beat - and those "da da da"s! I also love the effects he placed on his voice when he says "galaxies".


Deer in the Headlights

It starts out awesome and only proceeds to get better.

"Met a girl in the parking lot,
And all I did was say hello!
Her pepperspray made it rather hard
For me to walk her home..."

Basically, it's about Adam Young getting beaten up by a girl. This song is everything I loved about his earlier albums, and so much more. The chorus is the kind that sweeps you off your feet, and, in my case, drops jaws and glazes eyes.

My vote went to the deer.




I can't wait for the next single!

Owl City replied... to ME?

...wait, what?


So if you're reading this you probably know by now that Adam did, indeed, tweet me saying that he read my blog and that I was a talented author.

At the time he tweeted me, I was on DeviantArt browsing through the comics section, trying to find something to take the edge off my boredom. My phone was turned on silent as I get tired of the chirping it does when people tweet/text me.

I was going to sleep.

I really was.

And then, as always, I gave in and checked Twitter that ONE last time... and the first tweet I saw was Kasey and Haley freaking out about whether I was online or not, with a bunch of ASKDGKFS thrown in.

Obviously I had absolutely no idea what was going on, so I scrolled down a bit more and saw an Owl City tweet.

On closer inspection, it contained my twitter name in it.

On even closer inspection, it wasn't just another one of those Owl City Indonesia or Malaysia or anywhere else.



It was actually Adam Young.



I'll admit that I didn't believe it at first. It's the late night playing tricks on my eyes. DEAR VIENNA I'VE FINALLY GONE BLIND! Huh, wonder if someone hacked into his account? Are you sure there's nothing on the end of that OwlCity username?

It took a while to sink in - everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. (I kid you not. This is the extent of my ridiculous fangirlism. Sigh.)


After a minute or two of carefully counting out the letters in his username, refreshing several times and generally sitting there like an idiot, the sparkly train of light hit me.



I honestly wish that I could say I did something absolutely awesome and crazy and fangirly right then, but in reality I just sat there like an idiot for a couple more minutes while the effects slowly began setting in.
I'm not a doctor, but I'd say that I was pretty deep in shock for a while:

• light headedness
• clammy skin
• rapid pulse
• rapid breathing
• confusion
• weakness

After that, the first thing I sent him was "Wait - what? Wait wait wait" or some other incoherent garbage.
Then I managed to gather my wits and send him a nearly proper reply, thanking him in CAPSLOCKS and ending with "YOU'RE AWESOME?"

...to which he replied again "Of course!"





A year ago or so I was pretty into the writing scene - although, I must say, I was really not that good at it. After realizing I couldn't write proper multi-chapter stories, I stopped. Zero motivation, except for the odd plot bunny that jumped in front of me.


Now I want to write.

I suppose I'll start by keeping this blog a little more updated!



Haha. I'm still sitting here smiling. It's 1:30AM and I'm feeling really rather happy...

Lonely Lullaby

So I thought for a while if I honestly wanted to post this blog post at all, because some people are definitely going to frown at me and go "HOW COULD YOU" or stuff like that.

But it's the internetz and I'm just gonna get my opinion out there to the zero people who actually read it.

Truth is, I... er... don't like Lonely Lullaby all that much.

So if you're one of those people who adore the song please don't read anymore thank you.

Now, it might just be that I don't like songs that are too simple, and it is quite a simple song. Or it might be because I usually dislike piano songs since I've had enough piano to last me a lifetime. Maybe it's because I dislike the way he's singing too high, or even just because I heard Alligator Sky first, was blown away, and was disappointed by Lonely Lullaby's... lack of blow-away-ness.

Sure. Might be any of those.

But the real reason might be that it reminds me too much of Taylor and her tendency to drag people into her songs.

It was awesome/heartattack-inducing when he sang about Swift during Valentines, it was cute when he wrote a blog about it, and it was cool when I heard the song for the first time. But a few times after... eh.

Musicians take inspiration from past relationships and they can mix up a beautiful and depressing song about them, like Lonely Lullaby. I understand that. But is there a need to call people out by name, to take your revenge on people for dumping you by singing about it and releasing the songs to your fans worldwide like Swift does? No.

While Adam definitely hasn't gone that far yet, I can't help but see the way he's managed to pull Annmarie into this. She's not a big-name celebrity, unlike the people Swift makes songs about. Swift's ex's are already pretty famous, and really don't mind getting some extra attention.

Annmarie? She's a normal girl from Adam's high school that he fell in love with. I wouldn't want to be her right now, with this song about her. She's going to feel pressured and targeted, since fans are going to be going all "ANNMARIE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING OUT ON~" or "HOW COULD ANNMARIE DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO HIM?!"

If he didn't mention her name, people might be a lot less pushy about the subject and more focused on speculating who it's about (or if it was just a random depressing song Adam felt like singing).

Even though none of the fans really know her or anything... I feel sorry for her right now.

Another point is that - well. One of his latest blogs was "I Hate Goodbyes," and it was about a girl who he had to say goodbye to a couple weeks ago. Perhaps they met again and tried for something romantic again, I don't know - but a few weeks is enough time to pull together a song like "Lonely Lullaby" and put it on the album before it got finalized.

I don't know about you, but to me "I'll never forget you", repeated that many times, almost sounds like a threat - especially coming from someone who's got over four hundred thousand fans.

In all honesty... I find this song sorta scary. If "I Hate Goodbyes" wasn't about her, then it proves that he never will forget her (even after all these years), and it'd be sorta creepy. If it was about her, I'd still feel sorta creeped out that he records something like that and freaking puts it on the album.

I don't know Annmarie. I don't know how she feels about this. (It's quite likely that he asked for her permission to sing about her since he's a nice guy like that.)

But it's just why I dislike the song.

Apologies.

Going Owl Nocturnal

At 11:30PM on March 16th, the first episode of "Going Owl Nocturnal" aired from PepprmintWinter's Twitter.

...yes, I was bored, and amazingly hyped up since I'd slept so early. Not being able to go back to sleep, I grabbed my trusty laptop and started writing the first thing that came to my mind. The voice in my head took on the voice of the announcer from the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, declaring things with a flourish.

For the next half hour until midnight, quote tweets were tweeted every 1-5 minutes until midnight.

All my good quotes are now exhausted.




After the show, my battery died.
And the voice in my head is still obnoxiously enthusiastic.



...but I think I'll do this again. Every other day until the release of All Things Bright and Beautiful? Why not?
I'll just need to find something to host a show about... which may be difficult.






Next show airs March 18th, 11:30PM PST. Tune in for another half hour of witless ramblings if you're not afraid for your sanity....

Edit: GON airs every Friday night unless something comes up.

Let the Pirate-ness Commence

In Adam Young's most recent blog post, he gives several tips as to how to become a pirate. (With the whole "Owl City is sneaky" thing, I would have thought he'd be a ninja. Apparently not.)
Most of these involve personal hygiene, like not brushing your teeth, having chest hair, not wearing lipstick, and never wearing clean undies.

However, there were a few things that really did catch my eye, such as this one:


"No pirate shall “discuss his feelings,” unless his feelings include gutting a man from stem to stern and spilling his entrails."


For a guy who has posted numerous times about love, sang a love song to a certain blonde celebrity, and is undeniably Christian... all of a sudden the image of Adam wearing a triple pointed hat with a black eye patch, a hook, his beard and a wicked scimitar dripping in blood appeared in my mind and I cracked up.
Because the only expressions on his face that I could imagine were shock, confusion, or a complete idiotic "I've lost it and I'm on a rampage now" look.
I personally had never even thought about the idea that Adam might harbour a secret love for blood and gore and killing things, but apparently he is besotted with the idea of soft white intestines leaking out of a body-severing wound, coated with blood. After all, if he confirmed that his dream was to become a pirate, and spilling guts was obviously part of the job description, then it must have been one of the things he'd adore doing... correct?

The last image stayed in mind, that 'fierce' Adam!pirate going around a little pirate ship killing people, and then it was reinforced when I saw this line:


"...unless the pirate rips off the ninja’s arm and hurls it as a projectile."





Well, you know what they say about the nice ones...