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When anyone mentions the American band OneRepublic, the first song which would spring to most minds would be their hit single Apologize, produced in collaboration with producer Timbaland, which broke the records as one of the most successful singles ever released. One would have to agree that this band has came a long way from a lowly beginning within MySpace back in 2004. Dreaming Out Loud is OneRepublic's debut album, containing "Apologize" and it's remix version with Timbaland, as well as 11 other pop-rock songs, with another 3, "Hearing Voices", "Dreaming out loud" and "Something's not right here" available at certain locations only.

To get the ball rolling, I'm sure many have heard their single "Apologize" before. With that song in mind, I have to say that the rest of the songs within the album bear the same genre and some resemblance to it. I'm no music guru, but they have a heavy emphasis on acoustics and drums as well as the occassional piano. Most of their songs combines this and Ryan Tedder's(Their lead Vocal) unique voice to craft brlliant songs. For example, the much acclaimed "Apologize" uses the piano as well as the guitars to produce a melodic and addictive beat, providing the platform for this song to be the success it is today.

Despite OneRepublic claiming themselves as a rock band, I personally find "Dreaming out loud" somewhat contradicting it. Most of the album's songs are more of pop and non-metal, being what I myself would consider "soft" in nature. Their songs all follow one main theme, that would be emotional struggles, relationships and such problems. Another example, "Stop and Stare" is a catchy song relating to the act of trying to move on from something of the past, only realising later that although you try to get away, you would end up being unable to move away from that incident.

Furthermore, I find some of their music extremely repetitive. Perhaps one of the problems with this album is the lack of variety, some of the tracks sound alike, all bearing identical themes, and to put it bluntly, I would get sick of hearing the similar melodies or beats over and over again in several the songs. In addition, one nitpick I noticed is that they like to reuse the chorus repeatedly, for example, in "All fall down", as well as repetitive lines in "Prodigal". Sure, in the end, it may produce a great sound, but after sometime, it gets monotonous.

All in all, despite just falling short to the hype and high expectations one would expect after "Apologize" came out some time before the album, I still find the album still containing some solid music, a recommended buy for pop-rock lovers.

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