OneRepublic's Catchiest Song

"Feel Again" Is OneRepublic's Catchiest Song Since "Apologize"

The hit: "Feel Again," OneRepublic, off the band's still untitled upcoming third album.

Current chart position: #12 on iTunes; too early for the current Billboard chart (the song was just released this past Tuesday).

The team: Aside from his work with OneRepublic, frontman Ryan Tedder is a highly accomplished pop songwriter and producer. He is the creator of such massive hits as Beyonce's "Halo," Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love," and Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone." More recently, Tedder wrote and produced Adele's "Rumour Has It," off her Album of the Year Grammy Award-winning album 21.

Breakdown: OneRepublic is one of the most inoffensive pop acts out there--easily listenable, radio-friendly tunes with tender, romantic lyrics. But inoffensive doesn't have to equal bland. As stated in the previous paragraph, Tedder can write a beautiful hook, and "Feel Again" is the band's catchiest single since their 2006 breakout hit "Apologize." Many of OneRepublic's earlier material incorporated orchestral elements--like the cello that opens "Secrets" and the viola on "Apologize"--but "Feel Again" eschews the strings for a lighter, more animated feeling.

At the same time, the song has Tedder stretching his vocals harder than he did on the band's fluttery last hit, "Good Life." His wandering falsetto leads into a chorus that quickens and comes alive with handclaps and vigorous drumming. Half of the chorus' vocal melody is wordless but still effectively infectious--like in Ellie Goulding's "Anything Could Happen"--and the other half consists of repeating a sweet couplet that neatly sums up the mood of the song: "I'm feeling better since you know me/I was a lonely soul but that's the old me." The song is set up in such a way that the verses reflect such anxiety and disorder--"Heart still beating but it's not working/It's like a hundred thousand voices that just can't sing/I reach out trying to love but I feel nothing/Oh my heart is numb"--that when the joyous chorus hits, it feels like ecstasy, like a sun suddenly bursting through rainclouds. The exultation of that chorus is so infectious, when the song settles into its ending, you feel disappointed at not getting to hear it one more time.

Chart Moves

Chart Moves: Gotye's 'Somebody' Conquers Yet Another Radio Format, Hitting No. 1 on Adult Contemporary

As previously reported Carly Rae Jepsen leads the Billboard Hot 100 for a ninth week with "Call Me Maybe." With yet another week atop the Hot 100 podium, the song passes the chart's prior champ, Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (eight), for most frames at No. 1 in 2012.

-- Gotye: The singer's former No. 1, "Somebody That I Used to Know," holds at No. 6 on the Hot 100 and becomes the first track to surpass 6 million download sales (6.046 million) in the 2012 calendar year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The title also adds another chart-topping feat under its belt, as it rises to No. 1 on Adult Contemporary. In May, it became the first song to hit No. 1 on Alternative Songs, Dance Club/Play Songs and the Billboard Hot 100. Thus, "Somebody" is now the only tune to have topped all four of the above-mentioned tallies. It's one of the most crossed-over hits in Billboard history, having also climbed to No. 1 on Triple A, Rock Songs, Mainstream Top 40, Adult Top 40 and Dance/Mix Show Airplay.

-- Ellie Goulding: The blindingly successful "Lights" by Ellie Goulding continues to barrel up the chart track, motoring 5-2. Meanwhile, on the Adult Top 40 chart, the song makes the longest climb into the top 10 by a woman in a single chart run as it motors 11-8 in its 28th week. (Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You [Live]" took 29 weeks, but in two separate chart runs.)

Among all acts, "Lights'" rise is the slowest to the region since One Republic's "All the Right Moves" also took 28 frames on April 24, 2010. The all-time most-leisurely route to the top 10 is owned by Augustana's "Boston," which waited 32 weeks (Jan. 27, 2007).

-- Maroon 5: The group's "Payphone" has seemingly tied for the single with the most weeks in the top three -- that never went to No. 1 -- as it dips 3-5. The tune spent 15 weeks bouncing between Nos. 2 and 3 on the chart.

If "Payphone" does not receive a call back to the top three, it will have equaled the top three runs of these non-No. 1s: LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live," Shania Twain's "You're Still the One" and Timbaland featuring OneRepublic's "Apologize." All four songs peaked at No. 2.

-- Nicki Minaj: Sound the alarm for "Pound the Alarm." The diminutive (sometimes) rapper's latest dance/pop confection soars 92-50 on the Hot 100. The Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded track shifts 47,000 downloads, a gain of 239%, which is the largest percentage improvement among titles on Hot Digital Songs (where it debuts at No. 35) after the 472% jump by Phillip Phillips' "Home," which scoots 47-1 on that list (228,000; up 472%).

-- 50 Cent: The rapper arrives as the Hot Shot Debut at No. 79, instantly earning his best chart ranking as a lead artist since "Baby By Me" peaked at No. 28 in 2009. The new song, which features Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys, shifts 51,000 in its first sales week and previews his November release Street King Immortal. The song activity adds to a busy week for 50 Cent who co-stars with Forest Whitaker and Robert De Niro in Freelancers, which hits theaters on Aug. 10.

All American Rejects and Eve 6 bring youthful spirit to Deer Valley

All American Rejects and Eve 6 bring youthful spirit to Deer Valley

When you look at those previous performers at this season’s Deer Valley Amphitheater concert series presented by the Park City Performing Arts Foundation, you might notice something. If you averaged the ages of each, it would come to nearly 62 years.

Of course, the appeal of that lineup is that Williams and the others bridge generation gaps, and young listeners can find as much beauty, wisdom and timeless art from Hodgson, Yoakam and Neville as older fans do.

The challenge is getting young music fans to buy tickets.

So, in a nod to the younger people who might be avoiding the older-skewing, wine-sipping Deer Valley Music Festival this summer — Kansas and Earth, Wind & Fire, anyone? — the decidedly younger rock bands All American Rejects and Eve 6 will perform in the next installment of the performing-arts series.

In past years, bands like OneRepublic, Civil Twilight, Katie Herzig and Thriving Ivory have played PCPAF shows, says Teri Orr, PCPAF’s executive director. She met some resistance when the OneRepublic show was booked, yet everyone in attendance loved the youthful energy the pop-rock group brought.

All American Rejects and Eve 6 feature "great musicians," just as talented as the older generation of performers, she said.

The Tribune talked to both bands to see what the kids have to offer when the volumes are as high as the elevation.

All American Rejects » The rock quartet from the bubbling music scene of Stillwater, Okla., met early success— they were signed to a record contract when band members were still in high school — but never as much as when their kiss-off song "Gives You Hell" was the most-played song of 2008 on mainstream radio. A video of the song garnered more than 25 million views on YouTube.

Other songs, such as "Dirty Little Secret," "Swing, Swing," "Move Along" and "It Ends Tonight," have propelled the band to the top of the charts as well, and its most recent album, 2012’s "Kids in the Street," debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard albums chart.

All American Rejects were in Park City in January, where they performed a rare acoustic set at the Sundance Film Festival’s Music Café. "It was easy for us," said Mike Kennerly, guitarist. "We got to have a nice evening in a cool town."

In between the band’s 2008 album "When the World Comes Down" and "Kids in the Street," songwriters Nick Wheeler and Tyson Ritter retreated to secluded spots all over the United States to write skeletons of new, different

Irish / British band One Direction recording their second album

Irish / British band One Direction recording their second album - VIDEO

Band records “absolutely cracking song” while still on tour - Niall Horan tells all

 

One Direction’s Irish member Niall Horan told MTV News that the band has already begun recording its second album, while still wrapping up their tour for their record-smashing first album, Up All Night.

"When we came back from Australia, we had a couple weeks off and then we went straight into the studio to get cracking on the next album,” Horan told MTV News. "We wrote an absolutely cracking song that we're all kind of very excited about. ... And then last week we were in L.A. and we had five days off the tour to record in L.A. so we recorded more there.”
The band will spend July and August finishing the album, in order to release a single by September, Horan said.
One Direction and their management have yet to decide what the single will be, though Horan debunked Twitter rumours that it will be titled ‘Heartbreaker.’
“We actually don’t even have a song called ‘Heartbreaker,’” Horan said.
With the last album, the choice for a single was very obvious, according to Horan.
The band works closely with the record label on minute details of each album, down to the artwork and tracklist, he said.
“Like at the moment, I’m just proofreading the single artwork for the next single,” Horan said.

OneRepublic hits the tabloids

OneRepublic hits the tabloids, Sole drops new album, and more

Our music scene is a busy place with lots happening. If you don’t obsessively visit the local blogs, alt-weeklies, and other outlets, you could miss something important! That’s okay, we’re here to help with a weekly roundup of some of the more enticing news happening around town.
• OneRepublic got the tabloid treatment this last week after drummer Eddie Fisher was arrested following a heated argument with his girlfriend. Fisher has since pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, disturbing the peace, destruction of private property, and wrongs to a minor. Talk about irony. Somewhere in here there’s a joke about anger issues and sappy rock bands.
• Rapper Sole has released several volumes of material over the past decade, yet according to the former Anticon head, the forthcoming A Ruthless Criticism Of Everything Existing will be his first new retail album in nearly seven years. An example of what not to expect, newly posted track “A Jungle In The Real” was released as a SoundCloud stream this week but will not be featured on the final cut of the album.
• BLKHRTS are taking out two birds with their combination EPK and music video “BLKHRTS OVR.” The nearly nine-minute video is interspersed with live footage and press quotes, including one from us. Thanks, guys.
School Knights have a new music video out, too. The noise-rock band premièred “Powersluts” a couple weeks back, commenting to Spinner that the song is a “kind of criticism of the gender roles that people in their late teens and early 20s fall into.”
• Starting June 5, Mane Rok and company will be hosting a new monthly local hip-hop night at Chances Bar And Grill. The format for CO You Know! is a bit complicated, but sounds promising: A local hip-hop artist will be featured as the night’s DJ inspiration, based on submissions being collected now.