Yesterday, Adam Young of Owl City posted a new song titled "Good Time" to his SoundCloud account and announced that it would be available to purchase from iTunes on June 26th. It features the vocal talents of pop artist Carly Rae Jespen and focuses on how "it's always a good time when we hang out", though it doesn't say exactly that. But sadly, this song is far from "good" closer to plain old mainstream.
I've listened to "Good Time" a modest seven times today alone, trying to see if I can get myself to like it, but every time I hear it I grow even more tired of it. Jespen's voice is auto-tuned to the point of sounding unprofessional, Young's is pitch-bended with a very pop feel to it, the electronic drum set is a 125 BPM tempo of good old boring pop, and the lead synth is completely mainstream.
It's sad, Adam Young, very sad indeed. I'm appalled at how much you've decided to change your music during this time of "exploration". I can't believe you think that changing your style will help you in any way. You're going to lose the old listeners like myself and gain a whole new crowd -- the stereotypical partying one. What a shame.
Update: The final version of "Good Time", which was released on iTunes, is even worse than what seems to have been a near-final draft on SoundCloud. Young significantly pitch-bended his voice on the words "we don't even have to try" and it sounds really unprofessional. I can't believe he's becoming so mainstream -- it's just sad.