Music : Dreaming Out Loud

Rating: - Superb!
I heard one song "Someone to save you" a few months back on the radio and I thought it was great, but never knew who it was by, then I heard a few more songs featured in an episode of Smallville (which always features great music by relative unknown bands) and I thought they were awesome, so I had to look them up and find out who they were, it was "One Republic".
I knew I liked a few of the songs, so I thought I'd chance buying the album, but I was thinking, like on so many albums today, that other than the featured radio promotion songs, the rest of the album would probably be rubbish, but I am thrilled to say I was wrong. The whole album is amazing! I cannot stop listening to this album, it is stunning from start to finish with every song featuring stunning music and meaningful lyrics. I find it hard to pick a favourite, but I particularly enjoy "Mercy", "Stop and stare" and "Someone to save you".
If you have good taste in music, buy this album, you won't be disappointed!

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Rating: - Good, but should have been great.
The marketing team behind One Republic were extremely shrewd choosing to release 'Stop and Stare' and 'Apologise' from the album. These are by far the most outstanding tracks on the CD, and i think it was fair to expect great things from this group. Unfortunately after a very promising start the songs sound uninspired and consequently none stand out, which is a shame because you certainly get the distinct impresssion this band are capable of great music, but for every 'All fall Down' and 'All we are' there are tracks like 'Tyrant' and 'Somethings not right here' which sounds like a bad pastiche of Jeff Buckley, wailing isn't singing and can be quite grating in the wrong arrangement. But there is enough to enjoy here, you just wish they managed to maintain their evident quality throughout instead of sporadically.

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Rating: - Hopes and Fears 2008
This is a really good album and I believe will do for OneRepublic what Hopes and Fears did for Keane.

If you like Keane or Snow Patrol and have in the past listened to Train and MB20 then I believe that you will enjoy this. It is well produced, has good variety, is extremely easy to listen to from start to finish and thankfully a decent length at 60 minutes. Nearly all the tracks can stand up for themselves but the primary ones for me are the two singles (Stop and Stare and Apologize (both versions)), Say, Mercy and Prodical. Why not 5 stars? Well it is just not mind blowingly different, just a brilliant piece of pop/rock. Enjoy.

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Rating: - Snow Patrol sound alike?
This wasn't what I was expecting, after hearing it was hyped on MySpace. I was expecting something a little edgey, a little different. In fact, it was awfully like Snow Patrol - well produced, some nice tunes and, well, safe.... Rather too slushy for me, but I'm sure it will be popular.

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Rating: - Brilliant album!
I agree with most of the people on here. One Republic's album is grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat and i recommend that people should get it! I'm playing it now as I write this!