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Owl City - 'Fireflies'

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Fraser McAlpine | 14:13 UK time, Wednesday, 13 January 2010

Owl City

When choosing a name for your band, it's important to remember a few simple rules. Try and avoid words that people can't say on the radio. Don't make it too long, or too silly, or too hard to pronounce. Don't make it too vague, or too forgettable, or too rooted in the now to still be of use in a year or two. And never, ever, ever name your band after an animal and a place. That's, like, a really big rule, OK?

As I say, it's important to remember these rules. It's not important to FOLLOW them, obviously, otherwise Arctic Monkeys would now be called The Valves and we'd probably have never have heard of Oasis.

(. It's on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sound of 2010 profile page. I know! Swanky!)

So well done Owl City, for getting this far against all the odds. This is clearly a grand song. It's got childlike, dreamy lyrics and pretty little twinkly noises and it creates a little world for your mind to wander in. It's a bit like In The Night Garden for older children, or grown-ups who never grew up. The button in the video that says 'magical' is entirely justified.

By rights this should be a solid four-out-of-five kind of a song. Not perfect, but definitely above average, and instantly memorable. However, I've docked it one star for the following taste-based reasons:

REASON ONE: Adam's voice. For some reason, American synthpoppers - Metro Station, I am looking at you - seem to share one half-choked larynx and one bottle of helium between them. There's clearly a much-loved production technique which involves recording the vocals as quietly and hissily as humanly possible, before adding just a touch of electro-varnish to glue them into place.

Trouble is, it's the sort of technique you would use if you had a singer who couldn't hit a note with a shovel. So it's actually quite hard to tell if singers can really sing or not. And even if they can, it's tempting to demand that they have a good cough, take a deep breath and PROJECT for once.

REASON TWO: Some of those rhymes are less charming Dr Seuss/Lewis Carrol whimsy, and more of a fey, feverish dream in a rhyming dictionary. Little bit clunky, y'see.

REASON THREE: There is no reason three. I only docked it one star, sheesh!

Three starsDownload: Out now
CD Released: February 22nd (or something)

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(Fraser McAlpine)

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