In all honesty I can’t really understand why multi million selling production guru and now label boss Timbaland would throw in his lot with OneRepublic. As debut’s go “Dreaming Out Loud” really is something of a flatline release. The grandest moment they have mustered so far has ben courtesy of the lead single ‘Apologize’ and that only got kudos there because Timbaland brightened up the track with a remix that added a little sharpness while he sat up in the control room making funny noises in the background and some of his trademark “walking up a gravel drive” beats.
Alas for the rest of the album its one of the blandest releases I have come across in quite some time. At least bad releases are sometimes interesting, Yet this treads the boards as if it were wanting to be Coldplay or Keane but without a willingness to show any kind of gumption (and with those two comparisons that really is saying something). Yes, there is competent production in this distinctly homespun affair, but the songs range from beige to opague and I can more or less guarantee that if you sit through this album there are better things you could have done with your time. Like extracted your toenails with pliers perhaps?
Dreaming Out Loud is available from March 10th while the next single “Stop And Stare” is out on March 3rd.
