Style: feel-good dance pop; compare to Carly Rae Jepsen, The Postal Service, Relient K
Top tracks: "Dreams and Disasters," "Shooting Star," "Embers"
Midsummer Station spins the hits and pure pop confection. No surprise. Adam Young has built his electro-mixing talents into a juggernaut of danceable positive anthems. "Good Time," the ubiquitous hit duet with Carly Rae Jepsen, gives the gist: Throbbing house or guitar-rock backbeats. Superglue hooks. Geek-boy charm. All powered with the burning heart of young idealism. It's the stuff of teenage abandon that pulls even parents into windows-down, full-blast sing-alongs. Sure, it can mire in cheese ("I'm Coming After You"), but the collection is crisp, clean, anti-cynical. Credit that to Young's Christian faith—subtle but foundational to encouragement anthems ("Dreams and Disasters," "Gold"). Like the love it exudes, Midsummer Station always endures, believes and, most of all, hopes.