One Republic - Dreaming Out Loud Review

Timbaland sure has funny taste in rock dudes. From the sound of his latest discovery, OneRepublic, he's been watching a lot of The Hills lately. The Colorado band, longtime music-biz chancers, sounds like an aggressively ordinary Audrina/arena rock combo, combining the least distinctive traits of the Fray, Matchbox Twenty, Nickelback or (to be charitable) Coldplay. But Timbaland has given them a huge hit with his remix of "Apologize," and a fine hit it is, too: a compellingly incongruous teen-romance melodrama, cutting Ryan Tedder's bland vocals with a stuttering R&B drum loop. On the rest of the album, OneRepublic get to assert their own identity, which is a drag, since the half-loud guitars and sob-in-the-throat vocals could be absolutely anybody. Tedder emotes about girls in quizzical plaints like "Mercy" and "Tyrant" ("Capable of most anything/This crippled bird's gonna sing"). From the CD booklet, it seems like the band members are devoutly religious, so maybe they should sing about God instead of girls, which would definitely be more interesting....full text Perseverance is often rewarded… persistence pays off. For these guys, the looooooong wait is finally over, OneRepublic will release their debut album “Dreaming Out Loud” next week on the 20th of November. Awww I’m so proud of my guys, I discovered them when they were still virtually unknown in the who’s who of the music scene… back when they were out of a label yet a force to be reckoned with when it came to being the #1 rock group on myspace lol.

My take on the new album: its somber, reflective, and intense. It opens with the Ryan Tedder-produced “Say (All I Need)” which sets the mood of the whole album perfectly. “Do you know where your heart is? Do you think you could find it?”… ah Ryan sure does know how to tug at the core of your soul when he sings, such passion! This brand new song (previously unavailable on their myspace) set my heart racing as I was suddenly really really excited for these guys to get big, but at the same time I got kinda sad that I now will have to share them with many more fans around the world. Succeeding tracks then go into a majority of the Greg Wells-produced songs which were at one point or another, put up on their myspace for fans to listen to. Song after song, they deliver the goods… I am very much impressed. My favorites off of this brilliant album are the above-mentioned “Say (All I Need)” (such fiery passion), “Angel”, “Stop and Stare” (the first song I ever heard from them, which apparently will be the second single), “Apologize” (the current number one song on radio in its original version, and a deserving number one at that), “Goodbye Apathy” (what’s your vice, you know that mine’s the illusion - ah beautiful line), “Prodigal”, “Tyrant” (almost Tori Amos-on-the-piano intense), “All We Are”, and the album closer (if you don’t count the Timbaland remix to Apologize) “Come Home”… a beautiful way to close the album. But I have to say, there’s not a single clunker on this CD....full text Dreaming Out Loud is the debut album by OneRepublic, produced by Greg Wells with two songs produced by Ryan Tedder. OneRepublic has been the number one band on MySpace for over a year, and has been in MySpace Music’s Top Artists since early 2006, with over 21 million total song plays and counting.
They released their debut album in the US on November 20, 2007, although the entire album had been leaked on to the internet by November 13.




The first single released was “Apologize” (both in original form and a version remixed by Timbaland).
On September 13, 2007 the video of “Apologize” was released to all major music television networks.
The follow up single is “Stop & Stare”. On January 2nd, 2008, the track “Come Home” was featured on the television show Gossip Girl....full text