Owl City - Shooting Star

I apologize for taking a bit of a hiatus with this for the last couple of months, but I'm back.  Now, let's take a look at Owl City's new song "Shooting Star."  Owl City is just coming off of a huge success with "Good Time," but one of my major complaints with that song was that it sounded way too generic for Owl City.  Unfortunately, "Shooting Star" follows the same pattern.

The song is a basic pop dance song.  We've got Owl City singing in typical beat that grows into a bouncy, powerful chorus followed by the usual "whoa whoa whoa" while the beat plays.  There's nothing wrong with this, but we've heard it all before.  And this is Owl City we're talking about, the guy who's known for his unique sound, not for following commercial trends.

Then we get to the lyrics.  They're not as plain as "Good Time" but they are still very predictable.  It's the same old message about letting yourself shine through.  We've been hearing this for so long now it really doesn't carry any meaning, and I'm certainly not hearing any new meaning from this song.  In fact, this song could easily be mistaken for Katy Perry's "Firework" if you reworked some of the lyrics slightly.

The song manages to present a small fraction of Owl City's quirkiness.  The background beat gives a cute feel and the lyrics bring back the cosmic theme that's been in a few previous songs.  But it's really not enough.  It feels like Owl City has taken what's made him special and transformed it so it conforms to what's commercial right now.  It's really unfair because Owl City had some amazing songs, and "Fireflies" was even a massive hit.  But apparently it wasn't enough.

The question now is how will this song do?  It's formulaic style is sure to attract some popularity, but will it be enough to turn the song into a hit like "Good Time"?  I doubt it, but it's possible.

In other news, both The Voice and The X-Factor will be coming to an end soon.  I watched both of them and can easily say that X-Factor was much more entertaining.  Even though she's gone I will forever be a fan of CeCe Frey!