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August 24, 2009
Techno Dude-Pop Goes Dada
Not to cast aspersions on this young Minnesotan's artistic efforts, but, wow, is it just me or do these lyrics seem manufactured out of the tossed-off lines and unmetered verse of the past decade's most maudlin emo/meaningfulcore/turbo-earnest songs? To me, it's as if this dude behind Owl City spent a whole lot of time studying and analyzing Hallmark greeting cards, Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Dashboard Confessional albums, and Ben Gibbard's lyrical and vocal 'style,' then wrote some shit down in his Moleskine notebook, recorded some bloops and bleeps, and sang, and whispered, and sang. The first time I heard this, I wondered whether or not this song even meant anything to the guy who wrote it--the lyrics are so nothing, so impersonal and devoid of personality, it's almost as if he were using the cut-up technique of Burroughs or trying to make a lyrical collage, etc. Maybe that is the case and I'm not giving the song enough credit. It's more likely that he's just imitating his favorite artists in the course of trying to find his own songwriting voice, and probably every young artist has to struggle with that.
The more interesting question, to me, is one of substitution. This band's music, right now, seems like it could serve as substitute music for the fans of Postal Service who, by all accounts, will be waiting a long time for another P.S. album. And there are many other bands like this, surely--I remember Muse initially being hyped as a perfect stop-gap for Radiohead fans when that band was in its pre-Kid A cocoon. The Swedish band Starlet was supposed to be a nice Belle & Sebastian replacement. If I remember right, Kingsbury Manx was oddly compared to Elliott Smith (they toured together, but still). Some of these bands (Kingsbury Manx, Muse) have grown out of that pigeonholing, and some have not (Starlet? I don't even know if they still exist). It'll be interesting to see whether Owl City becomes its own thing or just stays on this Gibbard-biting trajectory.
Posted by Kevin at August 24, 2009 08:25 PM