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OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud
OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder was responsible for two of the biggest hits of last year, but the chances are that you probably don't know who he is. Not only did his band's Apologize get remixed into a hit for Timbaland last year, but Tedder also co-wrote and produced Bleeding Love for Leona Lewis. So, with those under his belt, surely the only way is up for OneRepublic? Well, probably not, because when most people hear their signature song (Apologize) they'll be thinking of Timbaland, not the band who actually wrote and recorded the song, which is featured here on their debut album in both its original form and the remix. Not that there is a dramatic difference between the two, with the original song full of strings and tinkling piano and a few more beeps and bleeps provided by Timbaland being the only real 'remixing' as the song itself is mostly left intact. But they can't really complain, because there is no way Apologize would have been the hit it was if their name had been on it instead, and that is why it is hard to see them forging much of a career over here on the back of it. OneRepublic are a very American kind of 'rock' band, in the mould of bands like Matchbox Twenty and - to an extent - Maroon 5, though without the pop edge of the latter, which is what has made them so popular in the UK when compared to the former. They're certainly not a bad band though, and Tedder has a knack for writing memorable ballads, as he's demonstrated already, and Dreaming Out Loud is packed full of them. Recent single Stop And Stare and Goodbye, Apathy bookmark Apologize and don't sound underwhelming in comparison, though a definite weakness is that the album as a whole doesn't really deviate much from that blueprint. It's all very well to have a solid collection of well-produced ballads, but it needs something else to make it special rather than just bland, and that is what Dreaming Out Loud is.
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Winona - Rosebud
Who is Winona? Well, she's Craig Armstrong and Scott Fraser. Confused yet? The two Scotsmen met in 2006 and formulated their plan to work together during spells in Paris, New York and Shibuya, with Armstrong's abilities as a composer for movie scores and Fraser's electronic music background combining to form Winona, along with vocals from Lucy Pullin and some spoken word segments from French actress Laurence Ashley. The end result is an album that has plenty of potential to be great, but never quite gets there often enough to actually be great overall. It certainly starts off well with instrumental opening track The White Room having the perfect title to sum up a sound that is cold, glacial and clean, but also inviting enough to make you want to keep on listening. Pullin and Ashely appear on Celebrity, which is a bit of a departure with its more conventional electro-pop song structure, but is still 'different' enough and edgy enough to fit Winona. Given Armstrong's background, the feeling of a soundtrack is never far away, particularly with track names like The Alpine Tunnel sounding like they belong on a Bond score, and the music contained within certainly has the potential for that, without ever exploding into life in the way you would expect, unless the score was done by Kraftwerk (how awesome would that be). Where Winona fails to succeed though perhaps comes from the diverse backgrounds of those involved, meaning that it sometimes doesn't mesh together particularly well, with some tracks sounding like Massive Attack, others Brian Eno and others, well, Craig Armstrong. Pullin's vocals and Ashley's speeches are well-used when they are used, but in the end Winona is a bit of an enigma that doesn't quite work as well as you would hope. It's still easy to admire, but not as easy to adore.
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