FRAZEE TRAIN: OneRepublic's "Native"

Native was released Tuesday, March 26. I have always loved OneRepublic's music, but this may be their best album yet. As a whole it seems to have more pop tracks than their past albums, but that also seems to be a trend seen today in most groups on the line between pop and rock (think of the changes with Maroon 5, Coldplay, etc). OneRepublic had released two tracks as singles before today, "Feel Again" and "If I Lose Myself." Both were quickly hits, and and chart toppers. I really love "Counting Stars" as well as the singles they had already released. "Au Revoir" illustrates OneRepublic's more quiet and sad side that they were first known for with "Stop and Stare" and "Apologize."

These guys are also well known for using strings in their music. This album doesn't stray from that, with the strings found in the majority of their tracks, but especially "Au Revoir," "Burning Bridges," "Preacher" and most obviously in the acoustic version of "If I Lose Myself." They also feature some tracks with strong percussive and bass sounds, which was noticeable more on their last album, Waking Up, than this one. Overall, this album is great. It obviously has the OneRepublic sound that many of us have loved, but each track in the album has it's own part reason for being there, rather than just a bunch of similar songs.

OneRepublic's Native

My favorite tracks on this album are "Counting Sleep," "What You Wanted" and "Life In Color" as well as the two tracks that were released as singles. The acoustic versions for some tracks at the end of their deluxe album really illustrate Ryan Tedder's great voice as well.

Ryan is so much more than just the frontman of OneRepublic. Some fun facts about him include that he also has an independent career as a songwriter and producer for other artists including Adele, Beyoncé, B.o.B, Kelly Clarkson, Far East Movement, Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Leona Lewis, Gavin DeGraw, David Cook, Demi Lovato, Maroon 5, Sebastian Ingrosso, Gym Class Heroes, T-Pain, The Wanted, and numerous others. This guy is just really interesting, and if you ever have some free time on your hands go look up more info on him. Ryan Tedder was ripped off by a program on MTV which he won and should have given him a record deal for, he then created his own record label and publishing group, and was stuck in a scandal when he was a co-writer for Beyoncé's "Halo" and Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone" which have maybe a few too many similarities, but at least in my opinion they're still very different songs and it was an overreaction on everyone else's part. He's also gorgeous, which always helps.