Music Monday #3

Welcome to another music Monday. This week is without a doubt going to be about Port Blue, a side project of Owl City's Adam Young.

I know a lot of people that don't really like Owl City... and I also know a lot of people that don't like Adam Young because of his overnight fame with the song Fireflies. And yet there are also people that don't like Owl City specifically because Fireflies is so overplayed. The song that I'm assuming you're currently listening to (at least, I sort of assumed people would click play and read while they listen) is arguably my favorite song by Port Blue.


Port Blue was one of the predecessors to Owl City. In fact, there are tons of little projects Adam has been involved in... Windsor Airlift, Swimming with Dolphins, Port Blue, Seagull Orchestra, and Sky Sailing, to name a few.

I always knew that he had done other things, but the only one I had really ever heard of was Swimming with Dolphins, which is extremely similar to Owl City itself. I guess none of them really ever took off, and thus he just sort of buried them under the rug. They are actually all different genres, and some have a much more rough style of singing rather than the smooth melodies in Owl City.

But the thing that caught my ear about Port Blue was not the singing, but instead the lack thereof. The simplest things can make such a difference in the song, and Adam nails every chord and sound with precision. The song above has these continuing footsteps that act not only as a beat, but also as a metaphor for movement. It's really cool to hear them continuing throughout the song as it progresses.

The music is pretty simple, and in many cases the songs are shorter. But with the right combination, they are really intriguing. I'd highly recommend finding the rest of the songs and listening to them. Last night was the reason I chose this artist for Music Monday, so if you missed last night's blog post... click back a few and read it. It'll probably help you understand a bit more.

And that's basically it. Just goes to show that music can be powerful, even with the lack of the words. And in some way, it's almost harder to convey what you want when all you have is sounds. Needless to say, I'm impressed.