‘Counting Stars’ from 2013 album Native saw OneRepublic zoom into the public’s view and the top 5 in the international charts, mirroring the success of earlier singles Apologize and Stop & Stare. Now they’re back with new album Oh My My, showing their growth and sound direction in the last three years.
From listening to songs like ‘Future Looks Good’ it becomes apparent, especially in this instance that they’re trying to hard to sound like Coldplay. People will probably fall for it because it sounds catchy and it’ll chart well, even though it sounds exactly like what Chris Martin has put out previously. ‘Kids’ has a rhythm in the verses that sounds really out of time, like trying to play along with an instrument expert when you’ve barely learnt a note. But as unstructured as the song may be, it’s catchy when the beat drops in the hypnotic chorus. Recalling their memories of being young and “swearing we would never die” is relatable and what with entice everyone to buy it, a perfect single choice then.
‘Dream’ is very bass-heavy for a change, a song for the festivals as people will be chanting “In these dark days and night / It might’ve been just a dream” and then raving to the dance-like chorus, which is so popular right now and taking over all the airwaves and download charts.
Oh My My shows that OneRepublic have taken a step forward in their music, to copying other artists and their winning ways. Some songs have a different flavour to them that is original, but most of them are similar to the best-selling singles in the past couple of years – mediocre, nothing really innovative.
Words by Amy Jones