Consider Shrines , the recently released album by Canadian indielectronica duo Purity Ring: one of the best albums of this year so far, but with disappointingly unrepresentative album artwork. Perhaps itâs just a fluke, but all I needed to convince me that musical quality is inversely proportional to album artwork in the 2012 electronic pop scene is seeing and hearing Owl Cityâs new album, The Midsummer Station . With cool artwork indeed, The Midsummer Station looks like it should contain masterful, innovative music by someone more like psy-trance artist Ott, what with the luscious water, futuristic architecture, and exceedingly large fish depicted on the cover. Alas, âtwas not to be. You may remember Owl City. The project scored a big hit in 2009 with âFireflies,â the catchy single from its major label debut, Ocean Eyes . That album was full of mainstream pop cloaked in electronic flourishes and, at its best, recalled The Postal Serviceâs 2003 classic, Give Up (although, come on, Owl City could only dream of being as good as The Postal Service). The Midsummer Station , then, is by comparison (to Ocean Eyes or Give Up or really anything) not very good at all. Owl City is really the one-man project of singer-songwriter Adam Young, although Young sure could have used a lot more help here. Even though heâs been producing for years, the music on The Midsummer Station sounds strictly amateur: linear and annoyingly predictable beats and fills, dull, clubby synths, and a stark lack of anything innovative or remotely interesting. Songs like âDreams and Disasters,â âSpeed of Love,â and âMetropolisâ epitomize this. Regrettable guest spots are provided on generic radio-ready songs âDementiaâ and âGood Timeâ by Blink-182âs Mark Hoppus and Carly-Rae Jepsen, singer of the admittedly catchy pop-hit âCall Me Maybe,â respectively. Already receiving radio play, âGood Timeâ has some of the shallowest, most commonplace lyrics this side of Disney Channel: in the chorus, Young and Jepsen sing, âWoah, itâs always a good time/ Woah, we donât even have to try, itâs always a good time.â The saddest realization, though, is that Owl City has somehow become one of the faces of modern electronica music, alongside fellow practitioners of mediocrity, such as Skrillex. Meanwhile, the truly stimulating artists of this genre â including Purity Ring, M83, Passion Pit, Air, Burial, Neon Indian, and too many others â are limited to the more underground scenes. With this misplaced popularity, itâs not wrong to wonder if the mainstream will ever discover that good electronic music actually exists. On âSilhouette,â another of The Midsummer Station âs forgettable tracks, Young asks, âIs it over yet? Will I ever love again?â Coincidentally, this is a question that Owl Cityâs awful new album will have listeners asking themselves at least five songs earlier. Overall Rating: 2/10