TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEWS --- Dreams & Disasters: This starts the album fairly well, with whimsical & well-made instrumentation & a good optimistic lyrical message. It enters club territory a little in the chorus but it doesn't distract very much. 7/10 - Shooting Star: The verses are vintage Owl City at its finest, with a dreamy-sounding synth line & lyrics. After that however, it showsTRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEWS --- Dreams & Disasters: This starts the album fairly well, with whimsical & well-made instrumentation & a good optimistic lyrical message. It enters club territory a little in the chorus but it doesn't distract very much. 7/10 - Shooting Star: The verses are vintage Owl City at its finest, with a dreamy-sounding synth line & lyrics. After that however, it shows nearly all the flaws that I mentioned in my Good Time rant below. The lyrics also take a nosedive in the chorus, becoming a lazy copy of Katy Perry's Firework, which IMO was already a mediocre song. 4/10 - Gold: The lyrics & vocal melody are okay (certainly a better "empowerment song" than Shooting Star) but what bothers me about this song is that it sounds EXACTLY the same as Alligator Sky from All Things Bright & Beautiful, which came out LAST YEAR. Does Adam really think his fans are this stupid?! Not only that; Alligator Sky was a far better song, with charmingly surreal lyrics & some great experimentation into hip hop. This, by comparison or by itself, is just mediocre. 3/10 - Dementia: This is the first song I heard from TMS when Adam leaked it back in April, & I was absolutely elated. Power chords, fantastic melodies & lyrics, & a duet with MARK HOPPUS! Great yet misleading first impression. 9/10 - I'm Coming After You: The music has an pretty cool synth-pop sound that's got an attitude to it. That however is where the praise ends. The police/love metaphors are cringe-worthily cheesy & almost come off as... rapey? Or at least stalkery? Maybe it's just me but it's a bit offputting. 6/10 - Speed of Love: Again, the metaphors are cheesy, albeit not as bad. But the overall sound of it is nice, & it's probably one of his more techno-leaning tracks. This is by far the best "dance" song here. 7/10 - Good Time: This is by far the most blatant indicator of what's wrong with a lot of this album: it's generic pop music that's pandering to the lowest common denominator, aka people who'll buy into any cheap schlock as long as you can dance to it. Every sellout indicator is here. Safe, generic lyrics that Adam probably wrote in 5 minutes with record execs watching closely behind him, with even a title that screams "mass appeal"? Check. Flavor of the week guest singer to ride the success coattails of (the Call Me Maybe girl)? Check! That copy-&-pasted pre-chorus & chorus beat that starts out as nothing, then gradually doubles in speed until a chorus that mainly consists of "oh" lazily repeated for 3 lines followed by a line that contains the title, backed by a generic club beat? CHECK! Shooting Star & Gold had me kinda upset, but this is just embarrassing, & a blatant cash-in for Adam to keep himself from becoming a one-hit wonder for Fireflies! 2/10 - Embers: Oddly enough, after the song that represented everything I DIDN'T wanna hear from this album, this song represents I DID wanna hear from this album. I loved the rock direction I heard on Dementia & I was hoping he'd expand on that, & that's exactly what this song did, & then some. Not only that but the instrumentation is beautiful, epic, & the lyrics are some of Adam's best. The string section was a nice touch too. 9/10 - Silhouette: On the opposite end of the highlight spectrum, we have this fantastic soft piano-driven ballad. The lyrics paint a beautiful picture of self-doubt without sounding emo & the instrumentation is carefully handled, providing just enough sound to invoke just the right amount of emotion. 8/10 - Metropolis: Like Good Time, this has that annoyingly generic, club-driven drum build-up. However, I think it fits a little better here, & the lyrics/instrumentation feel a bit more natural. 7/10 - Take It All Away: This song makes very good use of a slow, dragging boom-clap beat. Like Silhouette, the lyrics are breakup-centric, & while the lyrics here are slightly less subtle, they're just as good. The quiet synths in the background help create a great atmosphere, & this whole song just sounds so authentic, with the possible exception of the syllable-stuttering in the chorus, but I'll forgive that. 8/10 - Bombshell Blonde: This song just feels... off. I think it's because this is the only time where Adam has ever sung about something somewhat sex-related. It just doesn't fit. At least Good Time was about harmless celebration. This is basically about picking up a hot girl at the club. Don't get the impression that I'm a prude but given Adam's Christian upbringing & somewhat meek personality, this whole song just feels really forced. Case-in-points: the facepalm-inducing comparisons between himself & James Bond, & the *shudder* dubstep breakdown. The rest of the song is bad but I just can't help but crack up at that point from the awfulness. 2/10 - Top of the World: Meh. The guitar riff is okay but it just gets overtaken by the generic club stuff. Lyrics are pretty generic too. Just feels kinda stale. 4/10 --- Album score: 57/100… Expand
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