Coco Moon

As Owl City, singer/songwriter Adam Young crafts uplifting and wholesome anthems that somehow straddle the line between synthy bubblegum pop and earnestly diaristic memoir. Its a distinctive niche hes been carving ever since breaking through with his 2009 hit "Fireflies" and one he returns to on his seventh album, the earnestly fizzy Coco Moon. Owl City songs are super catchy, full of melodically homespun goodness (not to mention turns of phrase like "likety-split") that Young wraps in crisp dance rhythms, blue-sky synths, and smiling guitar strums. Hes like the Norman Rockwell of indie pop, crafting feel good vignettes of everyday life. Some of his songs feel like they were born out of his own midwestern Christian upbringing, as on "Adam, Check Please" in which he sings about taking pride in his first job at a supermarket. Yet others feel more like fables or a tale by Mark Twain, as in "Field Notes," where a boy chases his dog over a ravine and discovers a trunk full of gold in a farm field. As soon as you start wondering if the gold is just gold or a metaphor for something deeper, Young makes it clear. The boy, who has heretofore been living in a tiny, rundown shack, sells all his possessions and uses the gold to buy the farm field; choosing to value the rarity of the experience itself and the possibility for future magical/spiritual discoveries over the quick financial gain. In a message that can be boiled down to investing in yourself, Young sings," Your hearts with your treasure, wherever it is/And trust me, when you dig, a treasure will be revealed." Its a refreshingly straight-forward vibe and one that exemplifies Youngs penchant for celebrating the little things in life, whether its a surfer girls quirky tattoos on "Learn to Surf" or the glint in a concrete Brontosaurus eye on "Dinosaur Park." Of course, what he lacks in subtext, he makes up for in wordplay as on "Vitamin Sea," a sparkling ode to the restorative nature of Hawaiian beach vacations. With his boyishly upbeat vocals framed by crunchy power pop guitars and Caribbean marimba swells, Young fully exploits the songs curative metaphor, singing "Cause when my gusto gets low/Then thats when I know/I have a tropical deficiency." Full of puns, "Vitamin Sea" straddles an intentional line between sugary pop fun and sounding like a travel commercial. Of course, Young seems to know all of that. A cynic might at first think he is being ironic or messing with the listener. But no, while there is clearly a cheeky humor at play throughout Coco Moon, Young, as with a lot of us, really just likes sand between his toes. ~ Matt Collar

全米1位の"Fireflies"を皮切りにカーリー・レイ・ジェプセンとの"Good Time"など、00年代後半からヒットを連発してきたアダム・ヤングのプロジェクト。近年はメジャーを離れて独自の動きを見せていたが、この5年ぶりのアルバムでは往年のスタイルにやや立ち返った様子で、CCMらしい誠実な歌心に溢れる爽快なエレポップを披露。派手さはないが心に残る佳曲集だ。
bounce (C)大原かおり