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REVIEW: Adam Check Please Release date: February 3, 2022 Album: Untitled YouTube: [link coming soon]

Hot off the heels of the RIAA diamond certification of his timeless hit Fireflies, the second single of Owl City's currently untitled album brings the energy of the timeless hit into 2023, but ultimately fails to deliver the same lyrical charm. I listened to the "Open the Studio Door" preview version, which precedes the February 3^rd global release date, but I expect there to be few differences aside from audio quality. His decision to record a cassette player for the preview bothered me in Kelly Time, but I suppose it's an effective way to keep fans hungry for the full release. At least the wait is far less long this time.

Adam Check Please, like much of Cinematic, is another song where Adam reflects on his personal experiences. This time, it's about his after-school job at a grocery store in his hometown. That may sound like a boring premise for a song (it is), but I can see why it is personally significant to him. The song is an appreciative look at how his humble, minimum wage first job gave him his start and taught him valuable lessons. Though this is by far not his most interesting premise on paper, such a nostalgic topic could have yielded some evocative songwriting, especially for listeners with similar experiences.

Unfortunately, Adam Check Please's uninspiring lack of subtlety and abundant self-indulgence make it very difficult to connect with. The song is determined to tell you a story and teach you a lesson, but it does so in about the least creative way possible. Instead of communicating a feeling or moral by painting a picture in the listener's mind, the song wastes no time in telling you exactly what — and who — it's about. This may be the greatest example yet of Owl City's tendency to "tell" not "show" in recent albums. Surely, there must have been a more imaginative way for Adam to set the scene than to directly name his interviewer in the first line of the song.

If it sounds like I hate the song, I don't. In fact, I am happy to say that this is where my criticism for the song ends. Musically, Adam Check Please may be one of the most impressive songs in Owl City's entire discography. It effortlessly switches between several melodies and time signatures not just once, but numerous times. It is certainly noticeable, but it isn't distracting by any means because it just works so seamlessly. The song continued to surprise me as it went on, with its imaginative combination of a funky bass guitar with the whimsical synths that Owl City is best known for. I truly think that this song is a musical tour de force for Adam and it shows just how excellent of a music producer he has become over the years. If you took the best parts of the Ocean Eyes and Cinematic styles, mashed them together, and injected them with steroids, this is what it would sound like.

There is a lot to like vocally about this song as well. Particularly, the chorus really stood out to me on my first listen. Given the instrumental preview, I expected the chorus vocals to be loud and proud like Shooting Star, but we instead got something much more floaty and dreamy-sounding. There are also some other interesting vocal features, like the layered "help is on the way" harmonies near the end of the song. Adam hasn't just improved significantly as a producer and musician; his range and vocal control have never sounded better. There is no doubt autotune and pitch correction as there always has been, but his vocals and production skills have been so fine-tuned in the past few albums that it hasn't stood out for a long time. This song will no doubt be a highlight of Adam's future live performances.

The musical mastery is what will keep this song in my playlist, but it's a shame that it's brought down so much by the uninventive lyrics. When listening to it, I find myself purposefully blocking out the words just to lose myself in the music. It makes me conflicted about the future of Owl City. On one hand, the music itself has never sounded better, and I'm excited to see what surprises the other songs have in store. On the other hand, this song is a firm confirmation that the biographical, "on-the-nose" lyrical style of Cinematic is here to stay, for better or for worse.

It's likely that at this point in his career, Adam is content making music for himself first and for others second. I suppose after having already written a diamond certified hit and having been pushed around by record labels for several years, he's earned it. Perhaps he is simply living by the moral of the song: "chase your passion and not your paycheck." What he is passionate about writing may not always be what appeals to everyone's tastes, but it's not like I'm above that sort of thing. Can I really complain too much about self-indulgence after writing this massive essay of a review? Besides, if his passion projects continue to be this much of a banger, who am I to complain about him continuing to share them with the world?