Adam Young, aka Owl City, has made a career out of energetic electronic pop music. After the wildly successful Ocean Eyes Young has been having a tough time capturing the same magic he was able to achieve with the 2009 major label debut. When he released All Things Bright and Beautiful it received mixed reviews. Not knowing if we were seeing the making of a one hit wonder Young has struggled to capture the same vibe he was able to achieve with his early works that made him an internet sensation.

Now we are given The Midsummer Station as a way to try to recapture that feeling. Overall Young does a good job with this album. I think it’s hard to say he goes back to his “roots” when his roots were poppy summertime anthems. Sometimes it seems like these songs just right themselves. With a lot of Owl City albums you can simply run this music while watching the Disney channel on mute. The Midsummer Station is just that.

While opening tracks like Dreams and Disaster and Gold are a bit more grand and do have a bit of depth to them, the overall feel of this album is your run of the mill pop album. Now, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing if that indeed is something you’re into. Every now and then I like to watch a movie that doesn’t cause me to think too hard. You know, that Dumb and Dumber type of movie that just makes you smile. The Midsummer Station just makes you smile. It’s tough to be in a surly mood when you here lyrics like “I can see your future in the atmosphere.”

Bottom line: Overall this album is just a good time packed in 40 minutes of music. It’s nothing fancy or anything prolific. But then again, Owl City wasn’t anything we were looking to change the face of music. It has always been music we smile to. The problem I have with this album is that everything seemed to be in the same key and at the same BPM. I plugged the tracks into my DJ program and you can just about mix the entire album without gaps. Let’s try to mix it up Mr. Young!

Rating: 5/10