Drops: Adam Young's 'An Airplane Carried Me To Bed"

Adam Young is the first to admit that he really had no idea what he was doing as he recorded songs in his Owatonna, Minn., basement.

He wasn't sure how to put things together in the songs that became "Ocean Eyes," his debut as Owl City, which featured the chart-topper "Fireflies." He was even less sure when he recorded songs as Sky Sailing in 2007 while working as a warehouse metalworker.

But that's part of the charm of Sky Sailing's "An Airplane Carried Me to Bed" (Universal Republic). Young has assembled these pretty little songs like a chef without a recipe, combining his sonic ingredients in unique ways that suited his own personal taste.

In "Take Me Somewhere Nice," various synthesizer sounds float in and out, as if he was passing them on the highway. He uses drum machine fills in the catchy "Tennis Elbow" that are so simple that drummers everywhere probably cringe. However, in this context, they work.

"An Airplane Carried Me to Bed" is a more conventional indie-pop album than "Ocean Eyes," as acoustic guitars and piano sounds generate more of the musical backdrop than electronic bleeps and bloops. They suit the dainty electro-pop world Young built to accompany his fragile vocals that often barely get above a whisper.

It's a tribute to his writing and his emotional delivery that generally a whisper is all he needs to make his point.

GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE Pretty, introspective pop