Owl City’s Adam Young makes music so bland and textureless that it should carry a health warning. On this fifth album he burbles through sweet electropop that adopts the on-trend EDM punch of his 2010 hit Good Time, with some country-pop and soft-rock thrown in for good measure. Postal Service fans may still mutter about the similarities between Young and Ben Gibbard’s dulcet vocal styles, particularly on Bird With a Broken Wing, but that won’t stop this album appealing to fans eager to lose themselves in Young’s warmly lit world of breathless crushes, his almighty God and the nostalgic markers of a 90s childhood. Mobile Orchestra attempts to package and sell the intimacy of relationships. Unfortunately, the results are so poorly executed they feel almost insulting, employing cliches and metaphors rather than digging into the terrifying vulnerability and pulsating rush that accompanies romantic love. It’s unoriginal and twee – no doubt it’s destined for commercial success.
