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OneRepublic – Native album review

OneRepublic are enjoying a lot of chart success here in the UK the past few months. Counting Stars, the lead single from their 2013 album Native, became the group’s first UK number one hit and recent single Love Runs Out has peaked at number 3. It was recently announced that the band had passed the 50 million sales mark for their singles worldwide which is no easy feat. On the back of the success of Love Runs Out, OneRepublic has re-released Native with 7 new tracks incorporated into the tracklist.

For the re-release Love Runs Out has been added as the second track and the rest of the new tracks added to the end of the original tracklisting. The new tracks include three acoustic versions, a remix of If I Lose Myself, two brand new tracks and of course hit single Love Runs Out, which UK fans will have also heard as the soundtrack to the new X Factor advert.

Of the new tracks Something’s Gotta Give is a beat-laden track that moves from epic soundscapes to stripped-back instrumentation whilst Life in Color opens with a jingly-jangly melody that turns into one of the more uptempo moments on the record.

The album kicks off with the bouncy Counting Stars, easily one of the band’s best hits, and then moves into the double whammy of Love Runs Out and If I Lose Myself. Another highlight on the album comes on the folksy If I Lived which we imagine is what Mumford and Sons may sound like if they were a bit more commercial.

One of the issues we always have with OneRepublic rears its head on this album too. The band also has a handful of killer singles then the rest of the album tracks fall somewhere in the middling category. That’s not to say that the other tracks on the album are bad, it’s just that they aren’t as strong as say Counting Stars or Love Runs Out.

Native is a solid album with a handful of highlights and this re-issue should see it perform better in the UK than it did on its initial release. We’d like the next OneRepublic album to be all killer and no filler which you would think would be a given considering the incredible hits that frontman Ryan Tedder has been responsible for during his career to date.

Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of Piñata Media. With over 19 years of journalism experience, Pip has interviewed some of the biggest stars in the entertainment world. He is also a qualified digital marketing expert with over 20 years of experience.

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