[Day 291] Teeshirt Week 2: Owl City

Blehblargh sorry this wasn’t posted earlier. I was up all night sweating and blowing my nose all over the place, then woke up at five with a fever. Which was, you know, lots of fun. So let’s just say I spent the day watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch, She’s All That (which was tremendously awful. The things they passed of as plot development and dialogue…), and rereading Questionable Content archives. Clearly, not a lot of time for writing bloggities.

But I promised you all a teeshirt week, and with 74 days left in this project it seems silly to give up now.

This is the latest teeshirt purchase of mine, and I’m quite happy with it. If you’re familiar with Owl City, you’ll recognize the lyrics on the shirt (“If the bombs go off the sun will still be shining”) are from the song “Cave In”. Although, now that I think about it, even if you are familiar with Owl City, you probably wouldn’t get that right off the bat. I mean, I totally just Googled it.

Some people (coughjaroncough) have ridiculed my fan-status for Owl City, claiming that “all the songs sound the same” and other such things. While I’m not going to deny that the overall ambiance of the songs is very similar, that’s not what I like about this band (artist? It’s just the one guy, really…). I could make my own electronica pop beats on GarageBand.

No, what I like about Adam Young (Owl City) is his lyrics.

“The stars lean down to kiss you
And I lie awake and miss you
Pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere” (Vanilla Twilight)

“Circle me and the needle moves gracefully
Back and forth
If my heart was a compass you’d be north
Risk it all cause I’ll catch you if you fall
Wherever you go
If my heart was a house you’d be home” (Last line is the name of song)

“We were the crashing whitecaps
On the ocean
And what lovely seaside holiday, away
A palm tree and Christmas lights
My emotion
Struck a sparkling tone like a xylophone
As we spent the day alone” (Rainbow Veins)

“I am the red in the rose, the flowers
On the blankets on your bedroom floor.
And I am the gray in the ghost that hides
With your clothes behind your closet door.” (The Technicolor Phase)

I mean, come on, can you honestly knock that wordsmithing? Those images are beautiful. Who cares what goes on around them?

As a writer, I find myself appreciating the lyrics in music much more than the instrumentalist stuff behind them. I am a word person, so the words speak to me way more than the guitar riffs. Although I’ll admit, OK Go’s beginning to “Invincible” is pretty darned awesome.

Anyways, I just wanted to share some of these pretty lyrics with you and challenge you musical naysayers to actually listen to the things you claim to dislike before you knock ’em. It may surprise you.