I’ll listen
to just about any music featuring a synthesizer. I also enjoy the novelty of
hearing new things. This leads to a lot of YouTube surfing looking for my newest musical infatuation (AdBlock being a must for this). This essay isn’t about
an infatuation though. Recently I found something different.
The Postal
Service (TPS) was originally introduced to me in a Todd in the Shadows
video, where he referenced it as music that was difficult to dance to. As
someone who doesn’t do much dancing, I was intrigued. I hit up their top
tracks, and while I didn’t dislike it, I wasn’t captivated either. Before long I’d
moved on and mostly forgotten about them.
Sometime
later, Let Em Riot was on the Beyond Synth podcast (yes I know
this is a lot of namedropping, and yes I’m okay with it), and TPS was brought
up as a synth band with strong lyrics. Owl City (OC) was then mentioned as
being similar yet inferior (this comparison is not an original idea of mine). Likening TPS to my favorite synth act was a surefire way to get me interested again, but
I also wanted to know what OC was about. What I found was a fascinating example
of what I value in music.
The best way
to proceed may be a direct song to song comparison. Take “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” (“District”) by TPS, and “Vanilla Twilight” (“Vanilla”)
by OC. First off, those song titles. Ironically, while “District” explicitly
references sleep, “Vanilla” is the one that renders me unconscious through explosive
boredom. In a contest for banal and generic song titles, it would give it all
my votes.
Anyway, I picked these songs
because they cover related subjects. I can only say related, because while
“District” seems to be about longing after a failed relationship with regret
and reluctant acceptance, “Vanilla” is about vaguely missing someone. Same
theme, different scopes. Those description also say a lot about the depth and
richness of the content.
Moving on to the music then. TPS is
an example of what I really like about synth music. “District” is built on
drums, a subtle keyboard baseline, and some nice electric quirks. Mixed in are some stings, guitar, and those scales (which were an amazing
combination of whimsical and haunting). The music stays interesting throughout
the whole song, plus the way the layers increase and the tempo picks up give
the song a sense of building emotion. “Vanilla” feature a simple keyboard
melody with what sound like stock synthesizer samples mixed in. The “big” solo
at the end is the same keyboard melody, but some knobs were twisted to get it
to sound a little different. I was not very impressed.
How about the lyrics? The vivid imagery and metaphor in “District” was great. They show a story
rather than simply tell it. For example: “I’m
barely listening / to last demands / I’m staring at the asphalt wondering /
what’s buried underneath”. I can see that relationship ending due to the mental
absence of the narrator. OC’s lyrics… they tend to be trite, derivative, and
filled with treacle to the point where I want to vomit. And never before have I
seen such a perfect example of how rhyming can take all the poetry out of lyrics.
I will admit that there are a few lines I like, such as “Cold nostalgia chills me to the bone” and “waist deep in thought”. Sadly, any ground gained was instantly lost
by “The silence isn’t so bad / ‘til I
look at my hand and feel sad” or “As
many times as I blink / I’ll think of you / Tonight”. Ending a verse with a
draw out “tonight” is just the absolute worst thing ever.
If not lyrics, then maybe the
vocals compare better. Again, covering TPS first, I like their vocals. The mix
is very clean. The two voices harmonize well together. The sort of distance in
the backup vocals is good. I don’t really have the words to express exactly why
I like these vocals, I just know I do. So, what about OC? What I want to know
is; is that reverb an after effect or does his voice just sound that way? I don’t
like it. Also, he doesn’t really emote. There’s just this
constant mix of whiney and pleading in his voice that I find off-putting. I’m
going to have to go for a thumb down on the vocals in “Vanilla”.
Let’s try the music videos. They
operate on a whole different artistic medium, and may contrast differently. The
clear 1980’s inspirations in the “District” video won me over right away. Those
projections onto the bed are very “Burning Down the House”. But there’s
more than just that. The video tells a story which is almost completely
unrelated to the rest of the song, which I like. And the ending where the alarm
clock displays the album title is super classy. And the “Vanilla” video? Well, mildly
good-looking people gaze at a literal interpretation of a vanilla twilight
while he plays his keyboard in a lighthouse. I also guarantee that the (lame)
CGI in the “Vanilla” video cost more money than the entire “District” video. “District”
has props literally made out of construction paper, and it looks like they just
invited some friends over to be in it (I just want to be pals with that guy in
the blue suit jacket with the beard, and I’m not sure why). Shaq is in the “Vanilla”
video. This actually makes me like Shaq less, and that is just completely
unforgivable.
 |
| Is it just the beard? |
Faces are certainly a thing that
both singers have. I can’t possibly get upset over that. To be honest, my
facial recognition isn’t the best, and when I first saw him I actually mistook
Adam Young of OC for Ben Gibbard of TPS. I figured maybe the explanation for OC
was just a misguided solo project. It turns out that isn’t true, and they’re
different people. I still think they look fairly similar except that Young’s
face is a lot more punchable. On a separate note, while doing my Google image
search of faces, I found that Gibbard had a relationship with Zooey Deschanel
and Young had one with Taylor Swift. Surprisingly, I don’t have an opinion one
way or the other about this. I just found it interesting.
 |
| Ben Gibbard |
 |
| Adam West |
Well, what if these songs are just
atypical examples of the artist's work? Further research doesn’t support
that hypothesis. “District” is not my favorite TPS song (“We Will Become Silhouettes” is), nor is it my favorite music video by them (which is “Such Great Heights”). I feel safe in saying that “District” is not an
anomalously good effort by TPS. For OC, I haven’t dug quite as deep in to the
discography (for reasons), but “Vanilla” may be the least infuriating
song I’ve found. Seriously, how can you get one thousand hugs from ten thousand
lightning bugs? Either one thousand bugs are hugging you while the other nine thousand
simply spectate, or you’re somehow implying that it takes ten bug to make one
hug, and that is just patently absurd.
Ugh. It’s not that I enjoy trashing
Owl City. Actually, that’s a lie; I’m enjoying this more than I should be. It’s
that I feel a little guilty for tearing down something that some people like,
misguided though they may be. I don’t even think I really hate the music, or else
I wouldn’t be able to listen to it. The problem is that it makes me feel
nothing, and this is a state too unsettling to be allowed. My mind has to
create this disgust just so it can feel something. It’s both terrible and
compelling.
