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Ocean Eyes, released on the iTunes Store on July 14, 2009, and in stores on September 1, 2009, is the second studio album by American electronica project Owl City. It features a photograph of the Burj Al Arab as its album artwork. A vinyl edition was released, followed by a deluxe edition available on January 26, 2010. The deluxe edition incorporates four new tracks, including a remix of "Hello Seattle". The album contains guest vocals by Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen on the songs "Fireflies", "Cave In", "The Bird and the Worm", and "Tidal Wave".

On July 14, 2009, the song "Fireflies" was chosen as the Single of the Week by the iTunes Store. This led to a huge success as the song was downloaded over 650,000 times and helped the album reach No. 2 on the U.S. store. This success also led to the record company pushing back the release date of the physical copy of the album from July 28, 2009, to September 1, 2009. Adam Young, the founder of Owl City, told The Sun that "Cave In" was especially dear to his heart as "that song captures in just a few words, all my hopes and dreams." The album sold approximately 18,000 copies digitally in its debut week, and reached the top ten in the U.S., peaking at No. 8. That same week, its lead single, "Fireflies", topped the Billboard Hot 100. Eventually, Ocean Eyes climbed to No. 1 on the iTunes Store after the album price was lowered for a limited period of time.

The album contains slightly different versions of songs from previous albums, namely "Hello Seattle" from Of June and "On the Wing" and "The Saltwater Room" from Maybe I'm Dreaming.

Young revealed the origin of the album's title when he said:

I'm from the middle of nowhere in Minnesota you see, so the ocean has always been a curiously dreamy, ethereal, almost romantic thing to me. Over the years I spent a great deal of time with my eyes closed, imagining myself having the most wonderful adventures by the seaside. Doing things one can only do in dusk and glow and midsummer dreams, as if the back of my closed eyelids were a silver screen and I was a sentimental projectionist with hundreds of fanciful reels at hand, all ready to roll. Thus is the reasoning behind the title.

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