Greetings, fellow Hoot Owls, one and all, and welcome to this most glorious of days. That’s right: OWL CITY JUST RELEASED A NEW SINGLE AND IT’S AMAZING!!! If you’re even a casual fan of Owl City’s music, please do yourself the favor of finding Adam, Check Please on your streaming service of choice and listening to it RIGHT NOW!! And keep reading to find out exactly how wonderful I think it is, darling. Enjoy!

Verse 1

One of the things that I love the most about Adam Young’s music is his ability to build up the layers of his songs in the first few seconds. This song starts out with just the basics (guitar I think and some kind of electronic element) and gradually builds up with some more little trills and riffs that are such a joy to listen to. It reminds me of seeing him in concert back in 2018, where all that was on stage at first was just Adam and a bunch of instruments and he just moved from one to the next and some kind of techno magic kept each sound going until it was this super rich sound ALL MADE BY ONE SINGLE PERSON and that was one of the COOLEST THINGS I’VE EVER SEEN!!! And yeah, now I’m feeling like watching that little video clip again. Please hold while I go dig it out of my camera roll…

P. S. please excuse the terrible audio/video quality 😅😹 and also did you hear how many people were so excited to see Adam in concert?! Can’t wait to be among my fellow super-fans again later this year!

The Choruses

Anyway, back to the new Owl City song that just came out… By the first chorus, there’s a whole bunch of different layers and elements mixed in to this song and it’s wonderful. And THEN the time/meter change hits (pretty sure it’s 4/4 to 6/8 but IDK for sure) and it’s AMAZING!!! Like, there needs to be more songs with this kind of change in them because it’s like candy for my eardrums. So awesome!! And the lyrics here make the storyline of the song come alive for me. I can just see the awkward teenage Adam running in slow motion to the check-out line while that “Help is on the way” refrain plays in the background, crooked tie swinging, hair floofing out, tubs of Cool Whip going everywhere… Please let that be a part of the music video (if there is one!) because I’d really like to see that 😹

The Bridges and the Ending

There’s so many moments in this song where it feels like Adam is just having the time of his life jamming out on guitar and keys and all the things and he just goes “Whooooooo!” at one point and it’s wonderful. Also the fact that he’s this talented on all of these different interests and can weave them together so beautifully??? Yes. Just yes.

What do you think of these storytelling, reminiscent songs? I almost think that this one, which describes Adam Young’s first “real” job, is sweeter than some of the love songs he’s written over the years. The thought of teenage Adam awkwardly asking for a job at his small town’s grocery store is just so precious. And him being a successful artist now, with a DIAMOND-LEVEL single (woooo, yeah!!) and coming back to say THANK YOU?!?! See, this is why we love you, Adam. Bestest boiiiiiiii 🤩😻

As for the bridge/outro of “Adam, Check Please,” there’s a final build-up that turns into a false ending with these words: “So chase your passion and not your paycheck, be proud of what you have/ and put in the work until your signature becomes… and aaaaauuutograaaaaaaph…” and then it turns back into the 6/8 time with the “help is on the way refrain” that I, for one, can’t help but sway to EVERY TIME. It’s a perfect ending if you ask me.

Here’s a fan-made video with the lyrics of “Adam, Check Please” in an actual Hy-Vee grocery store (which I’m jealous of because I don’t live in the part of the US that has them 😿)

NEW OWL CITY ALBUM 2023!!! Everything we know about Coco Moon so far…

This week Adam officially announced the title and release date of his new Owl City album, “Coco Moon,” and as I’m writing this, it comes out in a month and a half!! The album will release on March 24th, 2023 and will feature 11 songs. Adam wrote all the fans an email that described it as “an album that is exactly the way it was supposed to be, not an album that popular culture, or algorithms, or analytics, or anyone else on planet Earth told me to make. I wrote me. Average, ordinary, weird me.” And based on the two songs that he’s released so far, I’m very, VERY excited to hear the full album!! It’s about time he let himself make music that HE likes above what other people want. Just saying.

Conclusion

This song, like all of the songs that Adam has made, is amazing. The fact that I’ve been listening to it for two (three, four) hours now on repeat, with only one earbud in, and it’s STILL BEAUTIFUL just speaks to how talented he is (and how much I just love Owl City lol). I’m so happy that Owl City is still making music, and can’t wait for this new 2023 album!!! Whenever it may be releasing (I heard a rumor about April 17th?).

What did you think of this song? Do you have a favorite song that you could listen to all day on repeat and never get tired of? I’d love to know!

Happy listening!