{"id":193,"date":"2010-01-28T21:20:31","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T21:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=193"},"modified":"2010-01-28T21:20:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T21:20:31","slug":"number-1s-of-2010-24-january-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"Number 1s of 2010: 24 January 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iyaz managed two weeks at the top with “Replay”, but gets knocked off the top a little earlier than planned.\u00a0 As I’ve mentioned before, record companies still like to promote records for ages before officially releasing them, even though promoting an unavailable product which has already been released in other countries is a huge incentive to piracy.\u00a0 The new number one was supposed to come out in February, but when knock-off clone versions started selling on iTunes, they rush-released it.\u00a0 Turns out they didn’t need the weeks of hype anyway, as the track goes straight to number one on its first week of release (though by a relatively slim margin).\u00a0 And the track in question is…<\/p>\n

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…“Fireflies” by Owl City<\/strong>.\u00a0 This\u00a0is the second consecutive number one to be a\u00a0debut hit, if that interests you.\u00a0\u00a0It’s actually the lead\u00a0single from Owl City’s second album, but nobody paid much attention to the first one over here.\u00a0 More to the point, he’s now got a major label behind him.<\/p>\n

Owl City is Adam Young.\u00a0 He comes from Minnesota and he’s another of these acts that supposed got started by building a following on MySpace – though I take these stories with a pinch of salt.\u00a0 He makes synthpop, and this record is, shall we say, instantly reminiscent of the Postal Service.<\/p>\n

The Postal Service, if you’re not familiar with them, were a side project of Ben Gibbard, the lead singer of Death Cab For Cutie.\u00a0 They released one album, “Give Up”, back in 2003.\u00a0 Despite good reviews, they’ve never charted in the UK, so it’s raised a few eyebrows that Owl City are having much more success making strikingly similar records. Here’s the Postal Service’s best known song (and best video), “Such Great Heights”.<\/p>\n

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And here’s “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight”.<\/p>\n

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You get the idea.\u00a0 Now, Owl City has taken a lot of stick for ripping off the Postal Service.\u00a0 To be honest, I have some sympathy for him on that score.\u00a0 While there’s plainly a big influence there, it’s not like people haven’t built entire careers on re-hashing the Beatles.\u00a0 If one guy copies your style, it’s a rip-off; if two hundred people do it, it’s a genre.\u00a0 And besides, “Give Up” came out seven years ago.\u00a0 It’s not as though they’re a currently active band.\u00a0 The statute of limitations on recycling their ideas has surely expired.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Besides, a quick flick through some of his other tracks on YouTube suggests the resemblance isn’t usually quite this pronounced.\u00a0 It also suggests that most of his other records are a bit heavy on the presets for my tastes.\u00a0 Here’s the American follow-up single, “Vanilla Twilight”, for example.<\/a>\u00a0 It’s not very good, but it’s also not very like the Postal Service.\u00a0 (These may not be wholly unrelated.)<\/p>\n

I quite like “Fireflies”, to be honest.\u00a0 Yes, it’s a bit twee, and yes, it’s not as good as the Postal Service.\u00a0 But it’s quite catchy, and if you judge it on its own merits, it’s a perfectly pleasant song.\u00a0\u00a0 And while it’s very like another band, it’s still quite different from most records in the chart.\u00a0 That said, if “Vanilla Twilight” is representative of his other output, I wouldn’t be too shocked if this turns out to a one-hit wonder.<\/p>\n

Also passing through the charts since the last time we did this:-<\/p>\n