OneRepublic: Waking Up

By Melanie Chung

Coming off the high of their incredible smash hit Apologize, the internet wonders OneRepublic had a whirlwind two years making a name for themselves with megahit producer Timbaland’s blessing. After their debut Dreaming Out Loud, OneRepublic have big shoes of their own to fill. Not only has frontman Ryan Tedder made a name for himself with OneRepublic, but also as a writer/producer for huge pop sensations Beyoncé, Leona Lewis, Chris Cornell and more penning such chart-toppers like Bleeding Love and Halo. An encyclopedia page can easily be filled up on this 30 year old bursting with talent. Actually, there is – just Wikipedia him.

But having such amazing credits can sometimes put an immense amount of pressure on a group, especially when it’s a group with your face, your name, your songs. And as talented as Tedder has proven himself to be both with the hits he’s written for other artists and with OneRepublic, the expectations of Waking Up have been less than stellar to say the least. With phrases like “ill-fitting attempts to fuse funk and rock” (strangeglue.com) or “it doesn’t offer up anything that you ever think may make significant waves on any chart” (411mania.com) used to describe the album, it looks as if OneRepublic will be quickly swept off the shelves and thrown into the $5.99 bin. But to be honest here, the expectations of another Say (All I Need), Apologize and Stop and Stare are both a tad unfair and yet also warranted.

As a huge backer of Dreaming Out Loud, I too was severely disappointed upon my first spin of Waking Up. That slick arrangement of Apologize was clearly absent and so were the stomping anthems of Stop and Stare and All Fall Down. Even the softer acoustic ballads like Come Home were nonexistent. That emotional resonance and simplicity of Dreaming Out Loud appeared to be of another band altogether when put next to Waking Up. But that’s just part of the problem with discographies. Regardless of Tedder’s long list of pop credits, OneRepublic is still a fairly new band and that confusion of trying to find their own footing being on the threshold of both the rock and pop world, is not easy.

Though confused isn’t exactly the word I would use to describe Waking Up, but it would come close if I also use the words Dreaming Out Loud in the same sentence. As a record exec, All the Right Moves would probably be the last track I’d pick out to release as the first single off the sophomore album. Its heavy on showcasing production and generating a rock-pop sensation that only a few bands like Nickleback have been able to master. The video too, is rather over the top, pretentious and too busy trying to prove how big OneRepublic really is. A record exec’s poor attempt really on proving how well he can handle a band with international scope. What’s being forgotten here, is that part of OneRepublic’s charm has always been its ability to connect with an audience on a more simplistic level. The stripped down sound of Dreaming Out Loud was the selling point, so why not use that in the marketing?

Though Waking Up isn’t what I expected, that’s not to say that it’s a bad record. By any stretch of the imagination. Yes, I do admit, it required a couple listens, probably closer to the third slash fourth, did I really catch whiff of its intelligence, quiet emotion, and unexpected arrangements. Tracks like Missing Persons 1 & 2 and title track Waking Up inspire U2 drama. Undoubtedly Tedder and co. can write a hit. But the album Waking Up is more than that. Agreed, the last third of the album is the strongest, the last minute and a half of breathtaking orchestral strings and piano on track Waking Up truly is the album’s turning point. Flowing nicely into the subsequent track Marchin’ On, this is the anthem we’ve been waiting for. Closing the album Lullaby is exactly what you would expect from a track titled lullaby. Soft, airy and melodic, Lullaby winds down the album with the emotional resonance everyone had been missing.

Sure Waking Up sometimes falls into the pop/rock formula, but when broken down, this sophomore album is more mature than Dreaming Out Loud. Clearly its bigger on a production scale – the instruments are bigger, the arrangements are more complex and the textural layering more intriguing. Lyrically, the tracks go beyond the fairly simplistic intentions than that of Dreaming Out Loud. The pick yourself up anthem (though Good Life kinda fits the bill) and predictable breakup song are out the window and in its place are more ambiguous writing with a darker undertone to it, such as Fear.

And it’s a crying shame to see a band with so much potential and growth fall into the God-awful fodder of being the soundtrack to cheesy hospital dramas. And with an unfortunate shortened shelf life based off both critic and fan reviews of Waking Up, OneRepublic may have to rely on those royalty cheques. Waking Up is much more deserving than being used just for terrible prime time promos, but it does require patience, an open mind and a love for new blood. And these are smart guys here. We know they can write a song. Hell, we know that they can write a hit. But the artistic instincts in these boys are obvious. Waking Up is no accident. A tad rebellious Waking Up is deliberately different, deliberately experimental. Tedder even admits to their change in writing saying “it’s a bit different than our first one, but I think it was a necessary thing for us.” And why release an album that’s the same as the first?

Release Date: November 17, 2009