Send "Owl City " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Ultimate-guitar |
 Sound: Owl City is known for it's smooth synthpop sound and they stay true to this sound throughout "All Things Bright And Beautiful". There isn't a new "Fireflies" or "Vanilla Twilight" on this album, but all the tracks are solid for what they are. The album is well mixed, and permeates a feeling of optimism. There are 12 tracks on the standard edition release (which I have). There are bonus tracks if purchased via iTunes. Adam Young had 3 separate guest stars on this album. On the song "Honey And The Bee", he is assisted with vocals by Breanne Duren (who is a solo artist, and also part of Owl City's touring band). On the song "Alligator Sky", Adam Young is joined on the track by Shawn Chrystopher (a rapper best known for a mixtape release called "I.W.G."). On the track "The Yacht Club", Adam Young is joined by Lights, which is the stage name of Lights Valerie Poxleitner, who is a Juno Award winning singer-songwriter. "All Things Bright And Beautiful" sounds a lot like the pop music coming out right now, except maybe it is better than most of it. The album is VERY heavily produced, the vocals are auto-tuned, and the progressions and melodies are predictable. // 6Lyrics and Singing: The lyrics from "All Things Bright And Beautiful" at times are very powerful, but at other times seem like the poetry written in an emo high school student's notebook. Lyrics such as "It's seventh heaven because there are angels all around, Among my frivolous thoughts, I believe there are beautiful things seen by the astronauts. So wake me if you're out there!" from "Angels" come across as weak and contrived. I tried to keep an open mind when listening to this album, but the lyrics really seem like they are definitely geared towards attracting a certain type of fan – young girls, and hipster young teens. The vocal delivery is so auto-tuned, I have no clue if Adam Young can actually sing. I hear he has done most of the work on the album himself, so I guess he is good at using recording equipment, etc. He is good at coming up with poppy songs with hooks. I have no clue, however, if he can sing. // 5 Impression: I wasn't even remotely impressed with "All Things Bright And Beautiful". Also, this album isn't my normal style of music, though I really did try to give it a fair shake. On the other hand, if you liked the other two Owl City albums, then you will like this one as well. The songs seem really light and airy and like they would be good for background music maybe on a drive. If I had to pick favorite songs on this album, I would have to say "Kamikaze", "Honey And The Bee" and "Dreams Don't Turn To Dust". I actually would say "Honey And The Bee" is by far the best song on the album....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn’t want to live there,” Owl City visionary Adam Young sings on opener “The Real World” off his new album All Things Bright and Beautiful, and, honestly, has there ever been a more relatable line? As our own Adam Downer recently lamented, “originality has kind of gone by the wayside these past few years, hasn’t it?” That whole “stagnation of art, music, life, culture, society, humanity etc.” that Mr. Downer commented on is seemingly omnipresent, in throwaway pop music, vapid, cardboard cut-outs of rock stars and regurgitated influences. The truth is, reality is a reused, recycled place, sadly enough, but for a little over forty minutes on Adam’s (Young) new record, he manages to transport us somewhere that isn’t so stale. All Things Bright and Beautiful is painted in bright watercolors, day-glo synths and candy-colored drum machines backlighting lyrics that speak to the eternal optimist in all of us, the starstruck inner child who believes that anything is possible. It’s what Owl City is all about, and with this sophomore effort, Adam is living his dream, and we’re all invited to join! If All Things Bright and Beautiful has a mission statement, it’s that we should always be appreciative of the everyday joy around us. Adam has always been a bit of a naturalist, referencing nature metaphors and the wonders of creation throughout his promising 2009 debut Ocean Eyes, but here his intertwining of relationships with evocative imagery is promise fulfilled. “If the green left the grass on the other side / I would make like a tree and leave / but if I reached for your hand would your eyes get wide? / Who knew the other side could be so green?” Adam croons in a delicate duet with Breanne Düren on “Honey and the Bee,” effortlessly combining natural imagery with his own unique brand of humor and a heart-on-his-sleeve approach that we could all take a lesson from in this cynical world. Lyrically, however, Adam refuses to be pigeonholed. The juxtaposition of “Kamikaze” with the Ronald Reagan vocal sample on “January 28, 1986” tastefully compares the bravery between Japanese suicide pilots and the crew of the doomed U.S. space shuttle Challenger, respectively, while on “Hospital Flowers” Adam fearlessly lives the role of an emergency-room victim: “The curtain decayed, the daylight poured in / I was never afraid of the darkness again / my burns were third degree, but I’d been set free / ‘cause grace had finally found its way to me.” At times, Adam’s lyrics approach near poetry, no more so than on this opening stanza from “Dreams Don’t Turn to Dust,” where Adam calls out all those who have lost hope in their aspirations: “Splashdown in the silver screen into a deep dramatic scene / I swam through the theater, or maybe I’m just a dreamer / like a kite in the bright midday, Wonder stole my breath away / shy sonata for Mercury; the stars always sing so pretty.” Inspirational, to say the least. Adam’s lyrics may be poetry, but it’s All Things Bright and Beautiful’s array of effervescent electro-pop backing tracks that make them into an organic artistic statement. The album has suffered multiple release-date setbacks, but the extra time has actually ripened the final product. As Adam mentioned in an interview, the additional time allowed him “to better connect the dots and ensure that every cloud in the sky is stitched together with its own special silver lining.” The care and attention show; where Ocean Eyes was often (perhaps unfairly) criticized for its one-trick pony electronic angle, All Things Bright and Beautiful leaves no musical stone unturned. “Honey and the Bee” builds up to its delectable declaration of love with a light fingerpicked acoustic melody, cleverly drawing a thematic connection between the lack of electronic elements in the tune and its message of irrepressible love via animal metaphors. Closer “Plant Life” is an epic rocker replete with stadium-sized keyboard chords and a chorus that calls to mind similarly positive artists Train, while “Hospital Flowers” and its gentle piano melody remind us all of the fragility of human life and the eternal hope of redemption. First single “Alligator Sky,” meanwhile, is a daring venture into hip-hop, a firm notice to his critics that Adam is not afraid to delve into unfamiliar territory. His roots haven’t been forgotten, however; on the contrary, All Things Bright and Beautiful is a new voice for electro pop, from the pounding four-on-the-floor of “Deer in the Headlights” to the appropriately spacey vibe of album centerpiece “Galaxies.” It’s his calling card and, if anything, the sound already present on Ocean Eyes has been refined, a finely glossed sheen of high production values polishing Adam’s potent “bedroom-pop” sound without losing any of his emotional intimacy. All Things Bright and Beautiful is just what Adam has shown flashes of since “Fireflies” took the world by storm: a groundbreaking, original artist not unafraid to sing what he’s feeling, unfettered by societal constraints and the cynicism of the 21st century, all buttressed by a fresh take on pop that combines the best of Beatles-esque songwriting and modern electronics. The messages are universal: love everyone; notice the little things; take nothing for granted. The feeling is as primal as unwrapping presents on Christmas morning or freebasing Prozac. Most importantly, what All Things Bright and Beautiful encourages us to do is much what Adam Young has been doing his whole career: getting better and growing, as a human being and member of this crazy little world, each as unique and equal as the next....full text |
| Avclub |
| It’s forgivable to anticipate Owl City’s Adam Young might change up his sound a bit on All Things Bright And Beautiful, just to get people off his back about being a Postal Service rip-off. But while the cool-kid camp is busy complaining about the blatant theft, Young is enjoying fame, fortune, and Taylor Swift’s attention. By sticking to what got him here, Young has pulled off a little trick: Instead of immediately bringing to mind The Postal Service on All Things Bright And Beautiful, now he just sounds like Owl City, i.e. a watered-down yet glossier version of the groundbreaking sounds that Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello conjured up nearly a decade ago. That’s the other genius of Owl City: With no follow-up to Give Up in sight, Young is conveniently filling an electro-pop void. Unfortunately, All Things Bright And Beautiful lacks the quality tunes that made Owl City’s 2009 breakthrough Ocean Eyes such a guilty pleasure. Sure, there are still plenty of big, catchy keyboard exercises to keep the kids dancing, including “Deer In The Headlights” and “Galaxies,” which hit on a few of Young’s favorite topics. He admits on the former that “the female mystique takes my breath away,” while the latter was inspired by the Challenger disaster and pays its respects to God. Regular contributor Breanne Düren turns in another great performance during the duet “Honey And The Bee,” but for the most part, the songs are unable to transcend their cheesiness, turning Young’s formula from winning to wincing....full text |
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