‘Orchestra’ hits sweet notes
In the six years since Fireflies, Owl City’s Adam Young has never strayed too far from the twinkling electronic magic that made that song a worldwide smash. Subsequent singles, including 2012’s Good Time with Carly Rae Jepsen or Verge with Aloe Blacc, have maintained a wide-eyed, almost naïve, optimism.
Young often makes that innocence work for him on Mobile Orchestra, Owl City’s fifth album. He has lots of help, too, from a variety of sources: Blacc, who also was the voice on Avicii’s Wake Me Up; former teen heartthrobs Hanson; country singer Jake Owen; Christian singer Britt Nicole; and British EDM singer Sarah Russell.
On Unbelievable, Young and Hanson wax nostalgic for a youth filled with Pogs, Goosebumps books and Dr Pepper jelly beans. The Hanson brothers make perfect collaborators for Young, who was 10 years old when MmmBop was released. Young and Owen also look to the past on Back
Home. That acoustic-based track sounds enough like what’s going on in contemporary country that Owen considered having Young produce some of his next album.
Sharp-eared listeners have noticed Young singing about his faith on previous albums, and some of his singles have received airplay on Christian radio stations. He makes his boldest statements of belief to date on Mobile Orchestra with My Everything, a straightforward song of worship, and You’re Not Alone, his duet with Nicole. Like his other songs, they’re filled with an innocent devotion, making them of a piece with other expressions of love, as in the bittersweet reflection in I Found Love or the charmingly sensual Thunderstruck.
Young’s lighthearted approach doesn’t always work, though, even when his heart’s in the right place. He tries to tell a tale of forgiveness and healing in the album-closing This Isn’t the End. Unfortunately, his sprightly lilt of a melody is so at odds with the moment of horrific tragedy at the story’s emotional crux that the song never recovers, even if its heroine does. It’s such a jarring misstep that it gives a sour final note to an otherwise sweet album.