All Things Bright and Beautiful is the third studio album by the American electronica project Owl City, released on June 14, 2011. Despite receiving mixed critical reviews, it became a commercial success, reaching the No. 6 slot on the Billboard 200 album chart.
The album's name is based on the hymn of the same name.
Video All Things Bright and Beautiful (album)
Writing and development
The album sees for the most part Adam Young staying true to his synthpop roots; however, he also dabbles in indie rock, folk, European trance in "Galaxies" and on "Alligator Sky", rap. Guest musicians on the album include Shawn Chrystopher, Matthew Thiessen, Lights, Breanne Düren and Adam Young's mother, Joan Young.
The album was originally planned to have a worldwide release date of May 24, 2011. It was then changed to May 17. On April 6, however, Young posted on his official site that the release date had been bumped to June 14, 2011. He stated that the reason for this was, "In an attempt to better connect the dots and ensure that every cloud in the sky is stitched together with its own special silver lining", and "with school finally out for the summer, it'll be a perfect time to sit back and watch the fireworks." Along with this post were previews of four tracks from the new album, each being 1:30 long. The previews posted were of "Alligator Sky" (featuring Shawn Chrystopher), "Deer in the Headlights", "Galaxies" and "Dreams Don't Turn to Dust".
On the introductory track to "Galaxies", entitled "January 28, 1986" (the date of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster), Ronald Reagan's State of the Union speech is sampled.
Maps All Things Bright and Beautiful (album)
Singles
The first official single released from the album was "Alligator Sky", which features Californian rapper Shawn Chrystopher, was released on March 22, 2011. There are currently four versions of the track. The first version features Shawn Chrystopher, the second features different lyrics and Chrystopher's vocals are omitted, a third version featuring Atlanta rapper B.o.B leaked online, and finally a fourth version featuring vocals from Big Boi of Atlanta hip hop duo Outkast also leaked onto the internet.
An exclusive single, "Lonely Lullaby", was released to all members of Owl City Galaxy, a club that you automatically became a part of when you pre-ordered the album. The song mentions an "Annmarie" many times, a reference to Adam Young's ex-girlfriend, Annmarie Monson. This song, however, is not actually part of the album. The app was discontinued in mid-2013.
On April 19, 2011, "Galaxies" was released as the second single from the album, and was made available for purchase and download on iTunes. It is the band's highest charting single on Billboard Christian Song Chart, peaking at No. 39, and surpassing Fireflies, which peaked at No. 44 (2010). It has since then re-entered the chart at No. 48 in the week of September 24, 2011.
The third single to be released was "Deer in the Headlights", released on May 24, 2011 (but as an iTunes exclusive, was made available for download the previous day). The single was announced in a different way than what is considered traditional. Starting May 16, 2011, every day of that week part of the song would be added to the sneak peek. It was originally just called "New Song", and fans had to guess the new song. The first part of the song to be released were the drums, followed by the addition of bass, guitar, synthesizer, and vocals over the next four days. On the final day, the title for the song was announced. Electropop artist Lights made an appearance in the music video.
"Lonely Lullaby" was released as a single on July 19, 2011, making it officially available to people outside of Owl City Galaxy. The song has been a surprising success, being one of the higher charting singles.
Young confirmed that "Dreams Don't Turn to Dust" would be the next single from the album, although it was uncertain if it would be released in the UK only.
Critical reception
All Things Bright and Beautiful has received mixed reviews, gaining a 49/100 score from Metacritic, an 8/10 score from IGN and a score of 5/10 from Spin.
Commercial performance
In the US, the album debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart selling 48,000 copies. In Germany, the album only reached No. 69 for one week before falling off the chart, charting lower than Ocean Eyes, which charted for 9 weeks and peaked at No. 7. In the United Kingdom, the album reached No. 30 in the midweek chart on June 23, only to fall off before the official chart later in the week. In Canada, Ocean Eyes peaked at No. 7, and stayed in the top 75 for 14 weeks. To date, the album has sold around 120,000 copies in the US.
Track listing
All tracks written by Adam Young, except where noted.
Personnel
Owl City
- Adam Young - vocals, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, guitars, bass, drums, programming, percussion, glockenspiel, marimba, accordion, producer, engineer, art direction, audio mixer
Additional musicians and production
- Breanne Düren - additional vocals on track 5
- Shawn Chrystopher - additional vocals on track 10
- Lights - additional vocals on track 11
- Joan Young - backing vocals on track 9
- Matthew Thiessen - backing vocals on track 12
- Laura Musten - violin on tracks 4, 6, 10 & 13
- Hannah Schroeder - cello on tracks 6, 7, 10 & 13
- Daniel Jorgensen - vibraphone on tracks 4 & 7
- Steve Bursky - producer, management & hand claps on track 5
- Ted Jensen - mastering
- StudioAKT - art direction
- Jack Joseph Puig - audio mixer
- Joe Corey - audio mixer assistant
Charts
Music videos
- Deer in the Headlights on YouTube. Guest appearance by Lights
- Alligator Sky (featuring Shawn Chrystopher) on YouTube
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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