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One Republic (USA)
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November 07, 20:30
Adrenaline Stadium 
Featuring the anthemic songwriting of Ryan Tedder, OneRepublic rose to prominence in 2007, when "Apologize" began its reign as the most popular digital download in American history. Although the song proved to be a quick success, OneRepublic had spent five years touring the musical minor leagues before its release, with Tedder splitting his time between the band's work and production gigs for other artists. Tedder and Zach Filkins formed the band in 2002 and relocated to Los Angeles shortly thereafter, adding keyboardist Drew Brown, bassist/cellist Brent Kutzle, and drummer Eddie Fisher to the lineup in the process. OneRepublic then signed with Sony BMG's Columbia label in 2003; three years later, however, the bandmates returned from a performance at Coachella to find themselves dropped from Columbia's roster.
Nevertheless, OneRepublic's popularity continued to soar on MySpace, and Tedder helped raise the group's profile by penning songs for artists like Blake Lewis and Hilary Duff. Hip-hop producer Timbaland (with whom Tedder had already worked for several years) took notice of the group's audience and signed OneRepublic to his own Mosley Music Group, a joint venture with Interscope Records. Timbaland also remixed one of the group's most promising tracks, "Apologize," and included it on his own album, 2007's Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The song quickly became a platinum-selling single in many countries, breaking airplay records in the U.K. and selling an unprecedented 4.3 million digital downloads in America alone.
Later that year, OneRepublic stepped out on their own with Dreaming Out Loud, a debut album filled with piano-fueled songwriting and pop/rock melodies. The album quickly went gold, and "Apologize" continued to top the singles charts in multiple countries.
When a remixed version of "Apologize" found its way onto Timbaland Presents Shock Value, OneRepublic were faced with an odd predicament - the group had a number one pop hit without an accompanying album. Dreaming Out Loud corrected that problem, delivering a marketable brand of piano-led pop/rock that combined the melodicism of the Fray with the vocal acrobatics of Maroon 5's Adam Levine. It's a testament to the band's appeal that "Apologize" sounds better in its original setting than in the Timbaland remix, a fact that owes as much to the musicianship itself as frontman Ryan Tedder's own experience as a producer. He 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. Tedder also saved some material for OneRepublic's debut, and his band wound up eclipsing many of his past clients in popularity. Tedder kept working with other artists during the following years. Dreaming Out Loud had its own share of hits, too - "Apologize" enjoyed a healthy residence on the charts, as did "Stop and Stare" - but the album still sounded derivative, almost as if it were mimicking the popular trends that Tedder helped create with his production gigs. "All We Are" was particularly Fray-like, with Tedder wailing a radio-ready melody over layers of piano and swelling guitar, while the ghost of Coldplay loomed large on other tracks. None of this made Dreaming Out Loud a bad album, particularly, but it did make it an unoriginal one, and Tedder continued to fare better whenever he was writing for groups other than his own.
OneRepublic began writing songs for a second album in 2008, and the group later decamped to Colorado Springs to avoid outside distractions. Although initially planned for a summer release, Waking Up wasn't completed until September 2009. "All the Right Moves," the album's lead single, was released to radio that same month, while the entire album followed in November. There's no room for humor, intentional or otherwise, within Waking Up's music: everything is tightly controlled and serious, with love songs playing as blood oaths and the group's modern R&B affectations - the one thing that keeps them from dipping into an adult contemporary morass - playing like a graceless assault, a cold clinical wall of synths. Ryan Tedder could construct some chilly hooks out of this iciness, but there's no joy, only dogged diligence, an alienating insistence that texture means more than warmth or melody.
In 2013, OneRepublic returned with its third studio album, Native, featuring the singles, "Feel Again" and "If I Lose Myself." As a songwriter for other contemporary pop stars, Ryan Tedder has proven his talent for writing intensely catchy songs that stick in people's heads whether they like it or not. But of course, plenty of people do like it, as evidenced not only by Tedder's success producing songs for such artists as Adele, Leona Lewis, and Maroon 5, but also with his own band, OneRepublic. And as with 2006's Dreaming Out Loud and 2009's Waking Up, OneRepublic's 2013 third studio album, Native, once again gives Tedder a vehicle to turn his hitmaking abilities on himself, and in the process, steal just a little bit of the spotlight away from his more recognizable clients. And why shouldn't he? Tedder has a burnished, resonant singing voice and a passionate, emotive vocal style that's perfectly suited for the uplifting crossover songs he so expertly writes. And that's kind of the dilemma for Tedder and OneRepublic, now three albums out. How do they stand out in a sea of other artists who sound so similar to them, primarily because as a songwriter, Tedder has largely defined much of the entire modern pop sound? In many ways, OneRepublic are a clearing house for mainstream pop sensibilities, and Native is no exception, with songs such as "If I Lose Myself Again," "I Lived," and "Au Revoir" touching upon the soaring, piano-driven alt-rock of Coldplay, the funky, synthetic, blue-eyed-soul of Maroon 5, and the slick yet earnest R&B balladry of any number of modern divas. Which isn't to say that the songs on Native are unremarkable. On the contrary, Tedder reveals a broad palette of stylistic inspiration, and cuts like the roiling, romantic "Light It Up" and atmospheric and yearning "Can't Stop" touch upon the ruminative qualities of indie rock, the falsetto-heavy tones of Prince-style lead vocals, and the wide-eyed drama of '80s Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. In some ways, Tedder's talent lies in re-appropriating the latest pop trend to fit his own songwriting style. Here, on tracks like "Counting Stars," Tedder has clearly been listening to the British folk-rockers Mumford & Sons and, as evidenced by the percussive operatic of "Feel Again," Florence and the Machine. Of course, with Tedder having possibly worked with any one of the artists mentioned here prior to recording Native, one could argue that he's merely re-appropriating his own sound. Ultimately, all of this might seem like more of a knock against OneRepublic as pop opportunists, if the music weren't so dang catchy.
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