When a remixed version of "Apologize" found its way onto
Timbaland Presents Shock Value in early 2007,
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, penning hit songs like "Bleeding Love" and "Halo" in the process.
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. ~ Andrew Leahey