Ever since Adam Young hijacked the Postal Service’s laptop-emo aesthetic and turned it into cloying, hollow-headed pap, Owl City has been one of music’s most disreputable artists. It’s been six years since “Fireflies” went to #1, and although Young lingered in the pop cultural consciousness for a while — Taylor Swift wrote 2010 album track “Enchanted” about him, and his 2012 single “Good Time” helped Carly Rae Jepsen avoid becoming a one-hit wonder — by 2015 he seemed safely out of view. Like me, you might have blissfully concluded that Owl City had disappeared forever.
I’m here to inform you that you were sadly mistaken.
Owl City’s fifth album, Mobile Orchestra, arrives this Friday, and it contains the worst music he’s ever made. It might be the worst music anyone has ever made. Mobile Orchestra is so atrocious that you might find yourself thinking, hey, maybe “Fireflies” wasn’t so bad after all. Subjecting yourself to it will likely lead to physical discomfort, emotional distress, and a despair that runs deeper than words. It’s the kind of album that inspires avowed pop fans to reconsider rockism as a life philosophy.