Courtesy of MCT

Owl City’s fourth full-length release, “Midsummer Station,” makes some changes from previous efforts, but that doesn’t necessarily make this treacly offering any more palatable this time around.

“Midsummer Station” makes no bones about its intention – to hit the mainstream and fill the heads of teenyboppers everywhere with its lyrics and melodies. Owl City’s sole member, small-town Minnesotan Adam Young, is no stranger to this kind of success. With the release of 2009’s “Ocean Eyes” and its lead single, “Fireflies,” Young saw his one man band soar from a basement MySpace project to the top of the charts, giving the world a song that we never need to hear again. This album provides us with plenty more of those.

Young has moved away from the mystical whimsy, dainty piano and puns that fueled his past efforts, this time relying on more conventional guitar hooks and pseudo-inspirational lyrics. However, just as often as Young’s lyrics shoot for motivational and uplifting, they end up stuck in the syrupy, especially in the case of songs like “Embers” and “Gold”(featuring gems like “Shout out to the dreams you’ll chase”). Just listening to “Shooting Star” will give you traumatic flashbacks of Katy Perry’s pre-teen anthem, “Firework.” The lyrics even stray into stalker territory in “I’m Coming After You,” which features the lyric “Don’t be alarmed ‘cause you don’t know me yet,” and Young repeating the song title over and over again in the chorus.

However, there are a few successes on the album. The majority of the songs are reasonably catchy and if you ignore the content, the buoyant MacBook beats are danceable (see “Speed of Love”). “Good Time,” featuring this summer’s pop princess, Carly Rae Jepsen, is a sunny confection worthy of being put on repeat under the guise of a ‘guilty pleasure.’ Save yourself the trouble and just buy the single.