owl city: maybe i'm dreaming

i came across this band in a fairly strange way. one of my former students gave me this cd. now, my students know i love joy electric because we listen to it often while they are working on homework. she must have remembered that and thought that owl city sounded similar, so she gave the cd to her little brother who is still a student. she attached a little note saying how much she loved this band and thought i might too. boy, was she right! she actually gave me the cd 'maybe i'm dreaming', and owl city's newest cd 'ocean eyes'. for some reason i just happened to pop in 'maybe i'm dreaming' first, not really aware that it was their first album. from the first listen i knew: i have a new favorite band! it now joins the ranks of joy electric and reliant k, which is kind of interesting, because owl city strangely sounds like a perfect mix of the two! it has the melodic focus of those two bands, the synth-pop feel of joy electric, and the vocal sound and style of reliant k. perfect! the tunes on this first cd are really amazing. its very light and popy, and the songs just have a beautiful flow to them. i'm not sure it thats really how smooth his voice is, or if he's using a voice changer to make it sound that way. some highlights of the disc are 'the salt water room', and 'dear vienna'. he, like joy electric, is able to find a simple hook that can get stuck in the head for days!
i got the cds a few weeks ago and have fallen in love. i havent actually even put the second disc in the player yet- i'm still too obsessed with this first one!