This is the Jukebox’s second attempt to describe the OneRepublic entity.
[Video][Website]
[3.89]
Anthony Easton: Robert Adams, one of my favourite photographers, shot for years around Colorado Springs, working carefully to document the environmental responses of the constructions of suburbs and living spaces on the prairie ranges that ended there. Even with the evidence of people in his work in supermarkets and tract homes, they are exquisitely lonely. So I know that there is precedent in making common and important work about the nature of the human experience in Colorado Springs. The ten years of so that OneRepublic has existed, the other CS — the one of uplift in suburban churches, of concrete boxes and carpeted altars, of air-conditioned Wal-Marts and free wi-fi at Panera, has been reflected in their work. Not that great work can’t be made of those things, or that those things are any less real, or important, but to mirror them without analyzing them seems lazy.
[4]
Alfred Soto: What an apt title. By marrying his treacly reality TV tendencies and Coldplay dynamics, Ryan Tedder enters the land of the living. He still can’t feel an emotion without spitting it on your neck but at least he’s mastered a kind of pop song that appreciates the minimalist in the maximalist gesture.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: I appreciate the uptempo however sluggish, but their attempts at anthemic are just as weedy as their attempts at treacle, and somehow less honest.
[4]
Iain Mew: The booming drums and richly rounded sound have a lovely touch of the Viva La Vida about them. Ryan Tedder does his best with his over-expressive take on every line and his “million dollar phones” to remind why Chris Martin is a better singer and writer.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: So this million-dollar phone isn’t capable of receiving calls, right? Really, that isn’t THAT bad of a situation — for a million clams, the phone presumably must look really nice, and the owner could still place calls from their end. If the owner also happened to be a bit on the reclusive side, the inability to be ringed might even be a perk. OneRepublic needs to think their similes out a little better next time.
[4]
Brad Shoup: Less Florence, less machine.
[3]
Katherine St Asaph: Aspires to gospel, becomes drosspel. On the upside, Florence Welch and Kelly Clarkson can now talk shop.
[4]
Alex Ostroff: Once ‘Dog Days Are Over‘ ended up on Glee, it was only a matter of time, really.
[3]
Jonathan Bradley: It’s these minor blessings we should be thankful for: OneRepublic shows just how adept Coldplay was when it added rave sentiments to stadium rock on “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” by producing a track just as guileless and luminescent and not even slightly tolerable.
[2]