Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 11/20/2007
When a remixed version of
"Apologize" wound its way onto
Timbaland Presents Shock Value in early 2007,
OneRepublic was faced with an odd predicament -- the group had a number one
pop hit without an accompanying album.
Dreaming Out Loud corrects that problem, delivering a marketable brand of piano-led
pop/rock that recalls the melodies of
the Fray and the vocal acrobatics of
Maroon 5's
Adam Levine. It's a testament to the band's talent that
"Apologize" fares better in its original setting than in the
Timbaland remix, most likely due to frontman
Ryan Tedder's own experience as a producer. To his credit,
Tedder was one of the industry's hottest commodities in 2007, co-writing material for
Hilary Duff,
Ashley Tisdale, and
Natasha Bedingfield while producing tracks for
Jennifer Lopez and
American Idol runner-up
Blake Lewis. He's saved some of his best work for
OneRepublic's
Dreaming Out Loud, but the rules are different here; his band doesn't have the brand-name appeal of
Duff or
Lopez, and they certainly can't expect the guaranteed audiences that
Lewis and
Disney megastar
Tisdale enjoy. As a result, the album sounds slightly derivative, almost as if it's mimicking the popular trends that
Tedder personally helped to create.
"All We Are" sounds particularly
Fray-like, with
Tedder's affable vocals wailing a radio-ready melody over layers of piano and swelling guitar. Elsewhere, the ghost of
Coldplay looms large, even if
OneRepublic often favors cathartic, cranked-up choruses that
Chris Martin has yet to tackle. Yet despite these similarities,
Tedder's vocals outshine those of his past clients, and the bulk of his band's debut is cohesive and smoothly pleasant, although not altogether original.
~Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
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