Ocean Eyes

You thought Fireflies was bad? Wait until you hear this lot…

For listeners of a certain age, Fireflies evoked a long-forgotten chart-topper by a similar laptop auteur, White City’s 1997 ditty Your Woman, and on the evidence of Ocean Eyes, Owl City is destined for similar one-hit-wonder status.

Young’s modus operandi is to write lovelorn poetry littered with enough twee puns to make Kathy Lette blanch, which he sets to Autotune-heavy, emo-inflected synth-pop far too derivative of former US cult band The Postal Service.

Let’s be frank: it’s drippy, depressing drivel, with the nadir being the The Bird And The Worm, where a breathy Young pleads “Let’s take a long walk through the corn field/I’ll kiss you between the ears.”

Remember his name: You’ll be needing it in a pub quiz in five years time.

Album Review by Ian Gittins