Adam Young, better known as Owl City, released his fifth studio album earlier this year in July. I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Owl City, but I expected better from them because of the admittedly amazing Ocean Eyes album.

The lead single “Verge” is the opener and contains one of the first mistakes on the album. The track features Aloe Blacc, best known for last year’s “The Man” and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.” Blacc has an amazing voice. If the voice of God is not that of Morgan Freeman or Tay Zonday, then it’s definitely Aloe Blacc’s. Meanwhile, Young sounds like a dorky 12-year-old boy who just inhaled helium for the first time. Usually, this would be the charm of Owl City, if you can enjoy that type of voice. But when his whining is played alongside Blacc’s crooning, there’s a very clear difference that only ends up making Young look bad. In addition to this, I feel like they wrote this song for spring but it came out too late because it is your basic graduation song. And if you don’t agree with me on that, watch the video. It starts with a graduation. They’re really trying to cram it down your throat. Even though our current graduation songs are overdone, there’s not really a void this song can fill. It’s not as passive aggressive as Green Day’s “Good Riddance” or as cheesy as “Friends Forever” by Vitamin C. It’s an unenthusiastic attempt to cash in on an event that ends up being mediocre. But, in all honesty, it’s one of the better songs on the album, almost entirely because of Blacc.

“My Everything” sounds like one of those love songs that isn’t actually written about anyone but is simply written to be a love song. This is due to the lyrics. However, Owl City’s pseudo-poetic school boy persona makes it seem like something he’s actually thought.

“Unbelievable” is one of the worst songs I’ve heard this year. There is nothing redeemable about it. Before this song, if I’d heard the words “unbelievable” and “90’s one hit wonder” in the same sentence I would have been happy at the thought of EMF’s hit song “Unbelievable,” with its Andrew Dice Clay sample and wonderful piano riff. Now, I’ll think of this horrible nostalgia cash in featuring Hanson (that’s right, the “MMMBop” guys…).  Young’s overly processed vocals are even more prominent than usual and the the production is generic garbage, but the absolute worst part of this song is the lyrics. There are no good lyrics. Young and the Hanson brothers sing about putting Mentos in Diet Coke, The Lion King, VHS, Goosebumps books and McDonald’s fries with nostalgic gleam even though these are all things that still exist. I hooked up my VHS player again last month and watched The Lion King over the summer. Also, MCDONALD’S FRIES?!! Those are the real lyrics. I didn’t make that up. They’re talking about how much they miss french fries from McDonald’s. I wish this review wasn’t written so that you could hear my exasperated sigh.

After that atrocity is “Bird With A Broken Wing.” This track threw me off because it sounds like something you’d find on Ocean Eyes. It’s one of the best tracks on the album. It also continues Young’s strange fascination with animals (“The Bird and the Worm,” “Honey and the Bee,” “Deer in the Headlights,” and “Alligator Sky” are all other Owl City songs).

If I had to pick a favorite track from Mobile Orchestra, it would probably be “Back Home.” The track features bro-country star Jake Owen. I don’t know anything about Owen’s music, but I know that bro-country is a bad thing. But the current state of country music is a discussion for another day. This track pulls a few country elements with its clappy percussion and use of what sounds like a real live guitar. Young’s singing voice, which normally resembles that of Finn from Adventure Time (who swallowed a computer and is therefore naturally autotuned), sounds less processed in order to fit the folksy vibe and Owen’s deep and twangy voice is a fitting foil to it.

There’s not much that I can say about “Can’t Live Without You” except that I like it even though there’s nothing very likable about it. It serves its basic purpose as a fun party song. It sounds like the kind of song that would play in the background of a soda commercial with happy, pretty teenagers on the beach. Something it shares with “Back Home” is that it is kind of the opposite of an Owl City song. What I mean is, if I were to recommend an older Owl City song I would tell people to focus on the lyrics so that they could get past Young’s vocals and the usually uninteresting production. With these tracks, I’d tell people to focus on the melody and maybe even the vocals if they don’t mind Young’s….style. The lyrics to both of these songs are completely bland and uninteresting. I find it weird that my favorite tracks from this album represent the opposite of what I would normally like about an Owl City song.

“You’re Not Alone” freaked me out a little bit. At first I thought it was a generic love song, but when I actually listened to the lyrics, I realized this is probably a Jesus song due to lyrics like “Your grace is all I need,” “You smile when You hear my prayer,” “God is love and He is all I need,” and “He died for me.” I don’t have a problem with religion or music about religion, but I didn’t expect to hear something like that from Owl City. Then I did some very basic research and found Young’s recordings of “In Christ Alone” and “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us?” I guess you learn something new everyday. But the song itself is pretty boring and does nothing positive for the album.

I don’t expect a lot from Owl City, but this album was still pretty disappointing. There were decent tracks, but I can’t be very impressed by them because I know that they’re capable of making beautiful songs like “Vanilla Twilight,” or at least better constructed songs with more interesting lyrics like most songs from Ocean Eyes or any of the animal-related songs  mentioned earlier.  I have some sort of weird soft spot for Owl City because of their only consistently good album. But “Unbelievable” is the kind of bad that is terrible for several reasons and gets worse every time I hear it. And I won’t say that I like this guy because “like” is a strong word, but would giving the album a positive rating get me in trouble with the other music critics? I don’t want to lose my license and get kicked out of the union over an Owl City album. But my job is to be honest, and I’d never want to sell an album short or give it higher praise than I believe it deserves. I’ll give it 5/10 unexpected Jesus songs.