One Republic Stop and Stare Music
by One Republic

About this Music

2007 debut album from the band that was, just prior to signing with Interscope, the #1 unsigned band on Myspace's Top Artist charts. Now, they are ready to take on the world. Features the Timbaland collaboration 'Apologize, which is also the album's first single.

If, like most of the pop-listening public, you heard Timbaland's chart-topping remix of OneRepublic's single "Apologize" before you heard the original, you may be mildly confused about what kind of music the band makes. Timabaland's signature electronic swizzles and "eh-eh-eh"s leave the impression that OneRepublic is a style-heavy outfit a la Maroon 5, but frontman Ryan Tedder's plaintive words and woebegone themes don't fall far from forerunners Keane, Coldplay, and the Fray. Dreaming Out Loud chisels away at the dichotomy. "Apologize," stripped of its swizzles, is a gorgeous modern rock song made all the more gorgeous by the urgency in Tedder's striking, unscuffed voice, and a lot of the songs on this record stack up similarly. Which is to say that, although tracks like "Tyrant" and opener "Say (All I Need)" wrap themselves around some seriously stylish production, substance is really this band's thing. A piano played by turns ferociously and tenderly drives the point home, and so do some choice lyrics; if you are inclined to choke up at feelings laid bare, check out "Goodbye, Apathy" and "Come Home" at your own risk. --Tammy La Gorce