OneRepublic Waking Up Review

OneRepublic – Waking Up

4.5/5

1. Made For You

2. All The Right Moves

3. Secrets

4. Everybody Loves Me

5. Missing Persons 1&2

6. Good Life

7. All This Time

8. Fear

9. Waking Up

10. Marching On

11. Lullaby

No, that’s not a typo. All the songs are bolded. Early warning: this album is not mainstream material. But it doesn’t stop it from being my most favorite album in 2009, and should be yours, too.

You know OneRepublic since 2 years ago they released a massive hit, Apologize from the album Dreaming Out Loud which was certified Gold (selling more than 500,000 copies). Then, Ryan Tedder, their frontman vocalist, co-wrote Bleeding Love for Leona Lewis which reached #1 in Billboard Hot 100. Since then, Ryan Tedder became the most sought-after song writer in the US.

Released in the massively competitive November 17, Waking Up offers a huge improvement over their debut album. Sure, there are no tracks meant to be big like Apologize. That kind of song is hard to come by. However, it is compensated with great songs all over the album.

Made For You acts as the interlude to All The Right Moves, the first single. It is really catchy and perfect as the album opener. Then comes the batch of greatest songs they’ve ever made. You WILL love Secrets, may love Everybody Loves Me and Missing Persons 1&2 if you are not skeptic of their changes in musical direction, but you WILL love super catchy Good Life and ballad All This Time.

Fear relies on simplicity in lyrics and Ryan’s falsetto, which combines really great. Waking Up and Marching On pick up the tempo and are great sing-along songs. And Lullaby acts as the perfect album closer.

The only drawback in this album is there are only 11 songs in it. When the songs are this good, you will always find yourself ask for more. Even with Deluxe version, there are only 2 new songs and 2 songs previously in the previous album.

Final Verdict: A superb album. Though not all the songs are radio friendly, but they are of high quality. Kudos to them for prioritizing quality over commerciality.

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