And we sing, sing, sing

It was the simply amazing abstract cover art that first drew me to the Silversun Pickups' newest album, Swoon.

I was lost in the mountains of music that make up Barnes & Noble's audio section, listening to CDs at random. A little bit of celtic here, some showtunes there. I even stumbled upon Disney's Wall-E soundtrack. But nothing caught my interest quite like Swoon.

I've never seen a more perfectly named CD. It was love at first listen: they had me hooked at "There's No Secrets This Year". Each audio clip, from "The Royal We" to "Surrounded (Or Spiraling)", was stunning. The music, the lyrics, the vocals-- triumphant!

To paraphrase the band themselves, this album is enough to make you sing, fight, and even cry.

Discovering Owl City

75. Find five new bands that I like enough to buy their CDs (1/5)

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I've known about Owl City for a few months now, but it wasn't until last night that I really discovered them. I'm volunteering at a bible camp this week and one of the camp songs reminded me (strangely) of "The Technicolor Phase".

When I finally took the time to listen to this band, I fell head over heels. To quote some iTunes review, listening to Owl City is exactly "like floating on a cloud of happiness". They're definitely my new soundtrack of the summer.