Cinematic (Owl City album)

Following the 2015 Owl City album Mobile Orchestra, Adam Young announced that he would suspend work on Owl City to undertake a project of instrumental scores; he released one score, or album, each month in 2016 excepting January.[1] Also in 2016, he released a Christmas single named "Humbug," which was the first Owl City work to be released independently since 2009 (Ocean Eyes, and subsequent albums and singles, were released on Universal Republic).[2]

Young hinted after the conclusion of the Scores project that work on Owl City had resumed and a new album was in progress; this was revealed, on October 30, 2017, to be Cinematic.[3] Young distinguished Cinematic from existing Owl City releases by stating that its content would center around events from his life rather than ethereal concepts (he clarified after the album's release that all prior Owl City work "was pure imagination," and Cinematic was "the first album [to] hold songs written from a personal perspective"[4]). Album artwork and release date were revealed concurrently with the name, followed shortly by a track listing.

Young elected to precipitate Cinematic's release with three successive "reels," each containing three songs from the full album. Early releases included the album's lead single "All My Friends," which was released on November 16, 2017 and would go on to comprise part of Reel 1, and "Not All Heroes Wear Capes," which was released on June 16, 2017 (Father's Day of that year) and would go on to comprise part of Reel 2.

Reel 1 was released on December 1, 2017 and, in addition to "All My Friends," included "Fiji Water" and "The 5th of July."[5]

"Lucid Dream," intended as the lead single for Reel 2, was released on January 12, 2018.[6] The reel itself was released on February 2, including, in addition to "Lucid Dream," "Montana" and a new electric version of "Not All Heroes Wear Capes." The acoustic Father's Day recording would not go on to be part of the final Cinematic album alongside its electric cousin, nor would an acoustic version of "Montana" that was released shortly after Reel 2 (which differs from the album's alternative version of the same song).[7]

Reel 3's lead single, "New York City," was released on March 9, 2018,[8] with the reel following on April 6. In addition to "New York City," it included "Cloud Nine" and "Be Brave."[9]

The album was released in full on May 31, 2018, including a total of 15 original songs, in addition to 3 "alternative versions" of selected songs.

Music videos were recorded for each of the three lead singles and released concurrently. Each video features the same characters and is loosely connected to the others; a "director's cut" of all three was released shortly after the standalone version of the third.

Cinematic and its preceding reels were released on Sky Harbor Records, an independent label owned by Young, confirming the end of Owl City's affiliation with Universal Republic. (All albums from the Scores project had been released on Sky Harbor, but under Young's own name, not as Owl City.) In addition to Cinematic, Sky Harbor retains the copyright to Owl City's first two studio works, Of June and Maybe I'm Dreaming, as well as An Airplane Carried Me to Bed, an album of Young's pre-Owl City work that Universal Republic published.[10]

Cinematic is the only Owl City studio album not to be released on CD (Maybe I'm Dreaming did not receive a CD pressing upon its initial release, not being backed by a major label, but was remastered and released on CD by Universal Republic shortly after Owl City's record deal became public knowledge[11]).

All tracks are written by Adam Young.

The Cinematic North American and Asian tours occurred respectively from September 13, 2018 to October 14, 2018 and from November 7, 2018 to November 24, 2018.