''Shooting Star'' is the second extended play by American

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

project

Owl City Owl City is an American electronic music project created in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. It is one of several projects by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young, who created the project while experimenting with music in his pa ...

, released on iTunes and other media outlets on May 15, 2012, through

Universal Republic Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

. The extended play consists of four new songs that would also be on Young's subsequent album, ''

The Midsummer Station ''The Midsummer Station'' is the fourth studio album by American electronica project Owl City. It was released on August 17, 2012, by Universal Republic Records. Writing and development After Owl City's previous album, ''All Things Bright and Be ...

''.

Mark Hoppus Mark Allan Hoppus (born March 15, 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist for the rock band Blink-182, being the only constant member and the only one to appear on every album. ...

, vocalist for

Blink-182 Blink-182 (stylized as blink-182) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California in 1992. Their current lineup consists of bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has ...

is featured on the song "Dementia".

Background

"I feel that as an artist you should never really look back or repeat yourself," Adam Young tells ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' during an interview. Young is currently planning for a new album to be released in the summer of 2012 and Shooting Star "is just to help build excitement... for the ewrecord coming out." His second extended play "is kind of a preview, and I wanted to make sure the four songs on the EP gave sort of an accurate snapshot or a taste of what the new record is about."

Writing and development

Though Young stays true to his

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

roots, the EP illustrates his efforts to create a polished and radio-friendly sound, dabbling heavily with European

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

in "Shooting Star" and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

on "Dementia".

Critical reception

Matt Collar of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

stated, "Musically, ''Shooting Star'' features more of Owl City's signature synth and melodic pop-oriented songs.

Track listing

Track listing according to

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econom ...

Credits and personnel

;Owl City * Adam Young – vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, producer, engineer, art direction, audio mixer ;Additional musicians and production *Mikkel S. Eriksen - Additional instruments on Track 1, composer *Tor Erik Hermansen - Additional instruments on Track 1, composer *Josh Crosby - Additional instruments, backing vocals on Track 2, composer *Dustin Sauder - Guitar on Track 2 *

– Additional vocals on Track 3 *Kool Kojak - Additional instruments on Track 4 * Nate Campany – composer * A.P. Grigg – composer * Dan Omelio – composer * Matthew Thiessen – composer * Emily Wright – composer

Charts

Music videos

References

{{Authority control 2012 EPs Owl City albums