Cinematic (studio album)
by Owl City

From benpaco 12/27/2019 01:38

I was not a big fan of this album, but I highly recommend listening to it. Let me explain. I got pretty into Ocean Eyes earlier this year and was hyped for the new album and, being honest, it’s really odd. It’s a lot of twangy, country influenced stuff that feels wrong from Owl City, and feels like it’s trying to capitalize on American Authors’ success years after their success ended. There are some really high highs, like “The 5th of July”, an oddly emotional take on Owl City’s usual electro pop presented in a semi-waltz, or “House Wren” and “Madeline Island”, anthemic, fun songs that would feel totally in place of the rest of his discography. So why am I recommending this? Well, on this album - not the deluxe version, just the album itself - there are three “Alt Version”s included. These take the twangy, out of place songs, and replace them with a sound that is similar to normal Owl City, but more stripped back. Had the whole album been a sort of minimal, bittersweet synth pop album like these Alt Versions and “The 5th of July”, it would have been one of my favorites of the year, and while the album still isn’t perfect, substituting them in instead of the “normal” versions actually makes the album flow better, and generally offers better transitions from track to track. I’m not really sure how this happened, as it certainly sounds like these were the intended versions, and I’m bummed they were removed, but just for these tracks alone, this album is worth a listen.