Owl City

Adam Young likely had no idea he was going to be such a divisive figure when he started making electro-pop on his computer to bide time during bouts of insomnia. However, sleeper #1 pop hit "Fireflies" and the album from which it came, Ocean Eyes, catapulted him and his Owl City one-man band into being an object of about as much annoyance as adoration. Twenty-something Minnesotan Young likely can't help his fanciful imagination that renders many of his lyrics to read like the rough drafts of unfinished fairy tales. Some have argued, however, that he perhaps could do something about how much of his work as Owl City (the most prominent name among the several under which Young records) bears some resemblance to fellow synthesists The Postal Service. But, with his often nigh psychedelically cutesy couplets, gentle voice, and guest instrumentalists and vocalists, Young's his own man. (Jamie Lee Rake)