A new version of Owl City’s hit second album Ocean Eyes is out now. The new set, which featured the smash “Fireflies,” comes in a 2LP format with one white and one blue disc.
Recorded primarily in his parents’ basement in Minnesota and released in 2009, Ocean Eyes followed Young’s breakthrough self-released 2008 debut, Maybe I’m Dreamin. Although Young had already begun to foster an audience with that release, Ocean Eyes introduced his strain of wide-eyed synth pop to a whole new sphere of listeners. “Fireflies,” which was actually recorded during the sessions for Maybe I’m Dreamin and inspired by insomnia he experienced at the time, would become Young’s most enduring hit. As he shared in 2025: “I wrote down the things that I was imagining during those bouts of insomnia, and those kinds of musings became the lyrics of the song.”
“Fireflies” skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in multiple countries including the U.S., UK, Australia, and Ireland. In 2025, it joined Spotify’s elite Billions Club, and it has been certified diamond by the RIAA. Although many artists understandably tire of their most popular songs, Young has kept “Fireflies” a consistent part of his touring set lists, and has expressed total awe at the impact the song continues to have over 15 years after its release. I still am just completely blown away,” he said last year. “It’s harder as time goes on [to understand] how a song that I wrote without a second thought – really, I had no agenda when I wrote the song – can be beloved by so many people around the world.”
That lead single, however, wasn’t the only memorable track to come off Ocean Eyes: others that have stood the test of time include “Vanilla Twilight,” “Hello Seattle,” and “Umbrella Beach.” Since the 2009 release that changed his career, Young has put out five more albums, the most recent being 2023’s Coco Moon. A deluxe edition of that record arrived in 2024.
