Music Banter - OneRepublic

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Counting Stars
If I Lose Myself
Feel Again
What You Wanted
I Lived
Light It Up
Can't Stop
Au Revoir
Burning Bridges
Something I Need
Preacher
Don't Look Down
Something's Gotta Give
Life in Color
If I Lose Myself
What You Wanted
Burning Bridges

:clap:

My favorite tracks are in bold. :)

This album is incredible to me, considering that I had only ever heard OneRepublic's "Apologize" previously, a song that did make it into my collection but never got much play time. It was so Timbalandy, too, so I let it fall into the piles of other 2005-2008 era stuff.

Their single "Counting Stars" is an entirely different animal. I'll admit that I heard the song five or six times before realizing who it was. I figured it was someone else. That sort of upbeat, save the world attitude is so trendy these days (see: Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons).

This album is a far cry from folk, but it does have a sort of otherworldly, natural, kind of...country? feel to it. Its kind of atmospheric at times and the vocals are epic in terms of range and quality. It reminds of something like a bluegrass band meeting a rock band and the two of them discovering electronic music for the first time but continuing to live in the mountains and make music for their own interests without paying attention to an audience.

I'm really pleased. The electronica bits are very welcome, they make the album a bit more palatable (it can be kind of preachy). It's also great for remixes. I've heard a few remixes of Counting Stars in Istanbul and they all explore different parts of the song. It's cool. It's flexible. It's fun.

Parts of the album evoke Coldplay, but I think this is actually more pleasant than Coldplay, because the lead singer of that band's voice never seems to change in pitch or style.

I encourage any doubters to give it a shot. It's already almost a year old but it's only getting really popular in the past few months. It's really an uplifting little record.