Owl City

Synth-pop songwriter Adam Young built up an impressively large online fan base without leaving his parents’ basement, racking up more than 40 million plays on his MySpace page and a million iTunes downloads. In less than a year, he went from being an unsigned artist who had never played live to releasing his hit second album with Universal, 2009’s Ocean Eyes, embarking on a world tour, then recording his follow up, last year’s All Things Bright And Beautiful. Its predecessor got by with ample inspiration from The Postal Service; All Things Bright And Beautiful helps fill the heartsick, synthpop void where that Ben Gibbard-Jimmy Tamborello collaboration’s second album should be—for better (big, glossy hooks) and worse. (Lyrically, Young remains an unrepentant cornball.) A new album, The Midsummer Station, is due out in August.

Updated 06/27/2012