Today, Owl City premiered the video for his new song “Beautiful Times” through Rolling Stone’s website. Here are my initial impressions of the video after watching it just one time (Watch it here via Rolling Stone).
PROLOGUE: In the Rolling Stone article that led me to this video, it says that Owl City’s new EP is called Ultraviolet, which is of course astoundingly similar to Lana Del Rey’s new album Ultraviolence. I bet he's kicking himself that he didn’t release his EP first.
1. It’s good to hear that Adam Young is still singing in his best “Ben Gibbard in the Postal Service” impression, although that could just be Autotune. I’ve always found it ironic that Ben Gibbard and Death Cab for Cutie were so openly opposed to Autotune, since the way Gibbard enunciates his words makes it sound like he uses it all the time.
2. This kid seems way too young to be getting into steampunk already. Take those goggles off and bring them back out when you’re in college.
3. I’m having flashbacks to that movie The Indian in the Cupboard, which is a title that would definitely get somebody in trouble if it were used today. I remember the VHS copy of that movie came with a key, or maybe it was a tiny action figure of the Indian in the cupboard. It was something neat like that.
4. It looks like he’s playing a game of Hollywood Squares all by himself. Where’s Joan Rivers when we actually need her?
5. The last time I paid attention to Owl City, he was some 18-year-old kid recording music in his basement, but now he looks like he’s 35. It hasn’t been that long, has it? Because that would mean I’m in my thirties too, which I’m pretty sure I’m not.
6. I'm sorry, did he sing the lyric, “I’m ecstatic like a drug addict?” As in, you’re in a state of euphoria while simultaneously being a heartbreaking wreck and/or nuisance to your loved ones? I’m just trying to figure out what he meant by that.
7. Jack White recruited a violinist for his new album, too, so I guess violins are becoming a thing.
8. I know he’s lip-synching to the studio track, but if someone that tiny was actually singing, it would be at a high-pitched, ear-grating level beyond Alvin and the Chipmunks. Or maybe his voice is just absurdly deep and therefore sounds normal when he’s been shrunk down to miniature size.
9. These uplifting lyrics seem like a much more clichéd and less interesting version of something the Mountain Goats would write, like “This Year.”
10. Okay, I kept waiting for all of the floating toys to pay off, but they never did. The kid just sort of stood there and stared at them in amazement, but then they stopped.
