This is the post where I go off on a very long tangent about one of my favorite artists, for absolutely no other reason than because I feel like it.

You do not have to read this post.

I call my blog a “lifestyle blog” which means it’s written to help the reader, but every so often, it’s a “personal blog” which means it’s written by and about the writer.

Today’s post was written for me. But since you’re here, you’re welcome to read it.

I’l start with sharing a very uncool fact about me.

Side note: I think instead of “fun facts” everyone should share “uncool facts”. That’s all.

My uncool fact is I love Owl City. Yes, the Owl City that released Fireflies in 2009.

For those of you who have never heard of it, Owl City is a project by Adam Young. It’s not a group, just one guy who likes to make music from his parents’ basement, which is where Owl City started.

Most people only know Fireflies, because it is his only solo radio hit.

I’m the 1% who has all albums downloaded on my phone and I listen to Owl City when I’m feeling any sort of way. I’m sad? Owl City. I’m happy? Owl City. Driving to a job interview? OWL CITY.

I decided to write about it because I listen to the album All Things Bright And Beautiful every January. My music mood depends heavily on the seasons, and I use it to help me transition out of Christmas music and into a new year.

Conveniently enough, one of my favorite tracks on the album is named January 28, 1986, which is the date that the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff. The track is comprised of pieces of Ronald Reagan’s speech (which is honestly beautiful) and serves as the intro to one of my favorite songs ever, Galaxies, which is a high-energy EDM track about the galaxy. At a base level, it’s literally about going into space, but on a deeper level, it’s about following God, even if it takes you into the galaxies. I think that’s pretty cool.

Did I enter my wedding reception to Galaxies? Absolutely I did. My husband is a good sport.

I’ll admit, Adam Young’s lyrics don’t always make sense; he uses silly metaphors and a play on words for many songs. I get that a lot of people don’t dig it.

In fact, I recently read an article about Owl City that debated whether or not Owl City deserved to be a one-hit wonder. The author, a 19 year old freshman in college concluded that yes, Owl City hadn’t produced anything worth listening to since Fireflies, and therefore deserved to be a one-hit wonder. He even said that many of his lyrics were “gibberish”.

Naturally, I didn’t love it.

But here’s the cool thing about Adam Young. He has Asperger’s. He doesn’t express himself in the same way everyone else does, because he’s not like everyone else. He feels and processes emotions in a completely different way and I love being able to experience of glimpse of his reality in his music.

He’s also a Christian.

Although his music doesn’t exactly fit the Christian genre, he sneaks in little mentions of Jesus in many songs. Some of his songs are even straight-up prayers set to music, like Meteor Shower. In his more recent albums, he’s produced more and more songs referencing his faith and how important his relationship with God is.

Music is a powerful thing. As a musician myself, I consider it to be a big part of my life. I turn to music when I’m upset or stressed, if I need to pray or cry in the shower, when I’m so happy I don’t have words or anything in between. It has the power to comfort and the power to inspire. It’s also a way that we can show our thanks and praise to God for all he has done in and for us, and for me, that makes it so much more meaningful and spiritual.

What is even more amazing to me is that not only does Adam Young use a gift he’s been given to express his emotions, which he may struggle with every day, but he uses it to step out in faith. He gets vulnerable and raw, giving all the glory and honor to God.

Earlier this month, he released a collaboration on a new Christian song, Let The Light In with Joshua Micah. Naturally, it turned into a rabbit-hole for me and I looked up all of his music - most of it I already have in my library - but I came across something really cool. He recorded a track-by-track commentary of his 2015 album, Mobile Orchestra (here’s the link if you like hearing about music production and how artists go about writing their music, I really enjoyed it). On that album is another one of my faves, My Everything, which I actually brought to my worship team and we play it at church now. I encourage you to listen to it here.

My Everything is a song about life beating us up, and running to God for comfort. God says that when we’re weak and tired, He will give us rest. Especially today, in this world, when we’ve been beaten up for a couple years now and we are tired, there’s one thing that we can run to to give us hope and peace. The song is pretty simple, compared to many of his other tracks, but I think the simplicity is what I love about it. It’s not eloquent or fancy. It’s a hurt and broken sinner saying,

“This is all I know how to say. Hallelujah, hallelujah.”

While listening to the commentary on that song, Adam Young said some really cool things that really hit home for me.

“There's also something really powerful about the word ‘hallelujah’ by itself, to me... I don't know what it is, but when you sing it over and over again to God as a praise, all the fancy metaphors and figures of speech and stuff fall away and it's just this beautiful moment, just this human voice singing to the Creator, “Hallelujah, I belong to you.”

Anyway, I thought it was really cool, and maybe you think so too. Either way, thanks for hanging out til the end of this post. Y’all rock.

“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” Psalm 40:3

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.” Revelation 19:6