“All the Right Moves” by OneRepublic, Tuesday, May 31, 2022

A band that started their career by being billed as the featured artist to Timbaland, their producer, who merely added a few grunts to a remix of their song "Apologize," OneRepublic quickly gained popularity on their own terms. Their debut album spawned several other hits including "Stop and Stare." On top of OneRepublic's success, lead singer Ryan Tedder quietly became one of the go-to songwriters for pop musicians. In the late '00s, Tedder began writing songs for Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson, and began producing tracks for other artists. Then in November 2009, the band released their sophomore album Waking Up.

BETWEEN THE NOISE YOU HEAR AND THE SOUND YOU LIKE. OneRepublic's debut record, Dreaming Out Loud, wasn't particularly innovative. A band coming out of Focus on the Family's hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and composed of (mostly) good Christian boys who, much like The Fray, were raised up on '90s CCM sounds of Steven Curtis Chapman. The multi-instrumentalists in the band incorporated cello, viola, and several instruments uncommon on a pop record and made the band somewhat of a classical crossover. But overseen by the production of Timbaland, the band started to lean into R&B and hip-hop beats that accompany the strings and rock elements in OneRepublic. With all of that said, the tracks on Dreaming Out Loud rarely live up to their potential and leave OneRepublic being somewhat of a little bit hipper coffee shop band at their best. At their worst feel like an anemic version of what a rock band should sound like. The band's follow up, Waking Up, though, seems to mix all of the elements that the band was trying for on their first record and actually pulls it off--most of the time. Many critics panned the record and its singles did their best in the Adult Contemporary charts, despite "Good Life" being included in tons of TV shows, movies, and commercials. Listening back to Waking Up today, it seems OneRepublic had all the elements in place to have an awesome 2009 pop-rock record, one that could get cred on the Alternative charts. Marketing had other plans, though.

ALL THE RIGHT FRIENDS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES. Waking Up opens with the moody, rhythmic "Made for You." It becomes clear from this track that the snare drum is going to be a big star in this album's composition, while guitars are either going to keep the beat (acoustic) or simply add noise (electric). By the end of "Made for You," it sounds as if Tedder has either run out of lyrics for that song or is merely rehearsing for the second track, "All the Right Moves," as he and an accompaniment of backup singers sing lines from the chorus of the next song. The tune and rhythm is different, but "Made for You" sounds like a bit of an overture for the album. The song ends with a children's choir singing lines form "All the Right Moves" and then the next song begins with an organ sustaining the notes that will be played as a theme throughout the song. Just like "Made for You," the snare drum drives the song. Cello plays a major part on the lead single and several songs on the album including the following track "Secrets." The snare drives the first half of the record and the second half of the album loses momentum, reverting back to a less-rhythmic vision of classical music. Speaking of losing momentum Tedder seems to struggle vocally to keep in tun as the album continues, something unheard of in the age of autotune. While the album was most likely recorded out of sequence, listening to the record today made me think about the contrast between how clean Tedder's vocals are on the first half, reaching for falsettos in today's song and "Good Life," and struggling to sing in his range on albums closing tracks. 

Read the lyrics on Genius.