Because of the early hour, I didn’t expect to see any familiar faces. But to my surprise, I did. Look at what I saw in Target’s CD section:

Yes, that’s Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel on the cover of Owl City’s Ocean Eyes CD.

I have no idea who Owl City is, they’re on Universal Republic records, an American label so I don’t know what their connection to Dubai is. Wikipedia says their genre is “Synthpop, Dream pop” – whatever that is. Doesn’t sound particularly Arabic or Islamic.

I know, lots of questions, few answers. Just thought I’d share.

UPDATE: Found an interview with Owl City (apparently the band is just one dude?) and he says if he could live anywhere in the world, he’d live on the top floor of the Burj Al Arab.

He sounds like a bit of a tool in the interview. He posits that he’d get good at tennis if he lived there because of their suspended tennis court on the top floor. Of course there isn’t one, sadly; he’s referring to the stunt in 2005 where Andre Agassi and Roger Federer played a match on the helipad (see No Tennis Stunts).

So that answers that question.