The Midsummer Station  The Midsummer Station is the fourth studio album by American electronica project Owl City. It was released on August 17, 2012, by Universal Republic Records. After Owl City's previous album, "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (2011), sold 143,000 copies in the United States, Adam Young began working on demo tracks for "The Midsummer Station" in January 2012. Unlike his previous albums, Young worked with different songwriters and producers for the first time, including Stargate and Emily Wright. However, Young again collaborated with Matthew Thiessen for his third album in a row along with Ocean Eyes and All Things Bright and Beautiful. Young was initially scared of the thought of collaborating with others, "I've never worked with anybody before. I've done everything myself except for mastering. It's a big job for one guy, especially a perfectionist, so I knew I wanted to try to experiment with other people." The song "Dementia", which features Blink-182 singer Mark Hoppus, was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. On May 15, 2012, Young released the "Shooting Star" extended play, which consisted of four songs that would be featured on "The Midsummer Station". Many criticized Shooting Star, saying it was very different from Young's previous works. On his blog, Young defended his choice for the new sound of the extended play and the album, stating that he believes "it's a bummer for an artist of any kind to hear, 'Yeah it's great but it's a lot like your previous work.' Creativity is all about pushing boundaries and pressing onward". In an interview with PureVolume, Young stated that the tracks on this record are much darker, with more influence of his own dreams, nightmares and self-reflection. The album was originally planned to have a release date of August 14, 2012, worldwide, apart from the United Kingdom where it would be released on September 17, 2012. On June 21, 2012, it was announced that the worldwide release date would be pushed back to August 21, 2012. On July 12, 2012, Young announced that the UK release date would be brought forward to August 20, 2012. The album was released on August 17 in other countries including Australia. Pranckevicius' artwork often explores the struggle between man and nature by combining man-made structures with flora and fauna, all coexisting in a forced, urban manner. In Time, there are multiple juxtapositions at work.