Throwback Thursday: Owl City, ‘Fireflies’

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly series showcasing an album, single, music video or performance of a bygone era and its personal and/or cultural significance.

Nostalgia is a helluva drug. We keep memories in jars that line our mind’s cracked walls, which often dance playfully away from reality back to a time when we took youth for granted and scoffed at growing older. In celebration of Owl City‘s new record, Cinematic, an sublime continuation of his jovial classicism, this time dyed with personal anecdotes and confessional shades, we turn our eyes to his career-defining hit. “Fireflies,” in which you can hear Relient K’s Matt Thiessen in faint whispers and flickers in the background, embodies our aching, inescapable need to look back as often as we do. The bleeps and plunking synths give the song a charmingly metallic taste, chirping alongside the obsolete playthings which roll, tumble and shine like polished, antique silverware at muser Adam Young’s feet.

“I’d like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly / It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep / ‘Cause everything is never as it seems,” he sings, vocals both smooth and feathery. That lost-in-time kind of stylized innocence is soothing, somehow allowing the stresses of everyday adulthood to melt away in hazy neon-waxed blurs. From the practically archaic Speak & Spell to the reflective helmet of a 2-XL robot to the snap, crackle and pop of a mini television set, the accompanying visual (a Steve Hoover direction) is a magical saunter down memory lane. “I feel like such an insomniac,” he later sings, sweetly depicting the racing mind of a young teenager, himself retreading the years of transformation, emotionally and psychologically. He looks back with fondness, a twinkle in his eyes.

“Fireflies,” the lead single to Young’s second album, Ocean Eyes, became such a ubiquitous hit, most listeners will certainly recall cherished memories decorated around or unearthed because of this sparkling, sky bound song. While it only topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two non-consecutive weeks, it’s impact was far more massive in scope. In the annals of pop music history, Young’s contribution is strongly and staunchly felt in the shimmering echoes of his unlike, unconventional and endearing smash hit.

Watch below:

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