Mobile Orchestra | ||||
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Studio album by Owl City | ||||
Released | July 10, 2015 | |||
Recorded | Sky Harbor Studios, Owatonna, Minnesota | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 35:49 | |||
Label | Republic | |||
Producer |
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Owl City chronology | ||||
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Singles from Mobile Orchestra (Promotional) | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 53/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The A.V. Club | C+ |
CCM Magazine | |
Cross Rhythms | |
The Guardian | |
HM Magazine | |
New York Daily News | |
PPCORN | |
USA Today | |
Worship Leader |
Mobile Orchestra is the fifth studio album by American electronica project Owl City, which was released on July 10, 2015.
In 2014, Owl City released an EP called Ultraviolet and released "Beautiful Times" as the lead single. Following the release, Young stated his intent to release a steady "series of EPs" in 2014 rather than one larger recording. On October 7, 2014, Young released two new songs simultaneously, "You're Not Alone" featuring Britt Nicole and "Tokyo" featuring Sekai no Owari. The former would eventually become part of the international edition of the album while the latter would become the fourth track of the Japanese edition. The song "Up All Night" from the extended play, Ultraviolet was included on the Japanese edition of the album as well.
On May 12, 2015, the album name was revealed along with its artwork, track listing and release date was announced despite his intentions to release a series of EPs instead of a full-length album.
Young collaborated with several artists to provide additional vocals for the other songs on the album: U.K. artist Sarah Russell for the track called "Thunderstruck", Jake Owen for the country pop song called "Back Home", Avicii's "Wake Me Up!" vocalist Aloe Blacc for the graduation-themed song "Verge", and Hanson for the song "Unbelievable".
In an interview with Billboard, he revealed the intent behind the name of the album saying, "The title is kind of a pun on the fact that I have a hard time switching off the creative side of my brain. Therefore, I'm always working on some lyric or some rhyme or some melody that won't leave me alone. The blessing and the curse of how all this amazing technology now fits in a little box, in a laptop. The blessing and the curse is that you can always be working on something, literally anywhere. On the airplane, I'll probably do that later today. I'll probably be on the flight, putting my headphones on, just messing around. You can be on buses and trains. The idea is that,with all the technology, one guy sitting in front of a laptop can create the sound of an 80-person symphony. All the moving parts and all the bells and whistles. That's the cool imagery for what I do."