Adam Young’s boyish vocals make him sound like a baby Ben Gibbard, and if Owl City is his Postal Service, then Sky Sailing is his Death Cab for Cutie. Young wrote and recorded An Airplane Carried Me to Bed’s songs in 2006, while he was still spending his days as a metalworker and living with his parents, and about a year before he crafted the sound that eventually resulted in the hit single “Fireflies.” Instead of Owl City’s bright, bleepy synth-pop backed by faint acoustic strumming, this album puts the guitar front and center, with keyboards occasionally coming along for the ride. The sound is different enough from the Owl City songs to warrant the Sky Sailing name, but Young’s basic approach remains the same not just from project to project, but from song to song. His voice and melodies are sweeter than sweet, and his muse remains love, whether it’s new, lost, unrequited or far, far away. Owl City’s winsomeness twinkles in songs like “Brielle” and “Steady As She Goes,” although their acoustic backdrops might sound a touch simpler and more genuine than the electronics of Young’s main project. Most of An Airplane Carried Me to Bed drifts by in a blur of wispy guitars and yearning sighs, with mentions of Audrey Hepburn and “wintergreen daydreams” popping out now and then. There aren’t many peaks and valleys here, although “Tennis Elbow” shows hints of Owl City, “Take Me Somewhere Nice” blossoms from playful electric pianos to accordions on its choruses, and “A Little Opera Goes a Long Way” shows off Young’s guitar solo skills. Young has a distinct vision for his music no matter what name he releases it under, and Owl City fans will find a lot to like about Sky Sailing. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi
An Airplane Carried Me to Bed
2010 | Republic
-
CD
$12.99AN AIRPLANE CARRIED ME TO BED
07/27/2010
All Music Guide Review
An Airplane Carried Me to Bed Track Listing
An Airplane Carried Me to Bed Notes
Sky Sailing features the early recordings of Adam Young, better known as Owl City.
As Adam writes on the Sky Sailing Myspace page: "Three and a half years ago, I recorded a collection of songs in my parent's basement during the bleary-eyed hours of night when sleep and I could not bring ourselves to meet. I was a metalworker, working 6 AM to 4 PM at a warehouse in my little southern Minnesota town. I was writing, creating, thinking, imagining and breathing music with every second I had to spare. Music has always been my dream, but at that point in time, it was merely a feather tossed to the wind. Regardless, my spirits were far from dampened and I created music as fast and as furiously as I could. In my little basement bedroom, I had an old Dell computer, Reason 2.5, a friend's borrowed Behringer C-1 condenser, a Behringer 8 channel analog mixer and my uncle's old Alvarez. I didn't have a clue what I was doing but I was a dreamer and music was my escape so I gave it everything I had. Never expecting my music to be heard anywhere but by my parents through the floorboards above, I wrote for my own ears. I was both artist and audience and I called myself Sky Sailing."
"I've kept these recordings secret for a long time and they've never seen the light of day until now. Long before Owl City was ever a spark of a flame, a lot of blue-collared working days were spent absentmindedly daydreaming about what would ultimately become this collection of songs. From the perfectionist musician's perspective, a song is never truly "finished" but rather "abandoned" and thus, after a lot of inspiration and reckless experimentation, I emerged from the basement with a 11 song record which I affectionately entitled, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed."
Credits of An Airplane Carried Me to Bed
- Steve Bursky
- Executive Producer
- Adam Young
- Composer, Producer, Engineer, Mixing
- Rob Helmstetter
- Art Direction, Design
- Greg Calbi
- Mastering








