After falling into something of a sophomore slump, OneRepublic demonstrated their creativity and skill are as strong as ever with last week’s release of their third album, Native. Though Native is by no means as good as OneRepublic’s debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, it is still a solid effort on frontman Ryan Tedder’s part and a refreshing comeback after a rather disappointing second album.
Right off the bat, you can tell this album is going to be better than the last. The opening song, “Counting Stars,” hooks you with the first few notes and never lets you go — reminding listeners of Tedder’s immense prowess when it comes to drafting refreshingly catchy melodies and chart-topping singles.
After helping to define modern pop — most notably co-writing Beyonce’s “Halo” — Tedder returns to OneRepublic to demonstrate that his talent has not diminished in the slightest. Though the album may not be groundbreaking — it is, after all, a pop album in every sense of the word — listeners won’t be able to deny its universally appealing tunes and introspective lyrics.
Sometimes, of course, the record inevitably falls flat. OneRepublic is still technically classified as a rock band and “Light It Up,” with its striking guitar instrumentals falls somewhere in between. It is also the only song that I consistently skip when listening through the album.
But even though the rest of the record doesn’t quite live up to the standards set by the opener, the variety in the album keeps the songs from sounding formulaic, which can be a huge problem for most pop records today. From the violin-driven, slow ballad “Au Revoire” to the heartfelt lyrics of “Preacher,” there is plenty of original material to keep the listeners and the fans satisfied.
Although the lyrics in Native tend toward cliché and predictable, it’s obvious that sincere effort was put into the making of the album. “Feel Again,” the album’s first single, was used to raise awareness and funds for Save The Children’s “Every Beat Matters” campaign, and it incorporates recordings of heartbeats from children in Malawi and Guatemala. Even the omnipresent YOLO sentiment present in “Something I Need” with the lyrics, “If we only die once, I want to die with you,” are sung with genuine passion.
But I might just love Native so much because it’s a hint at how to revitalize the pop industry. Given enough time, many bands gradually begin to lose their distinct style to the “mainstream” songs on the radio, but OneRepublic has managed to preserve their core sound while still appealing to the masses. If anything, Native has only further cemented my status as a loyal OneRepublic fan.
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