Dreaming Out Loud, released in November 2007, rectified that situation, proving that, as far as production was concerned, the band didn't need Timbaland to craft their hits. "Apologize" is a more potent hit without the hip hop mogul's overproduction, as is made abundantly clear on the album version. Meanwhile, "Say (All I Need)," "Mercy" and "Stop and Stare," which open the album in tandem with "Apologize" with a potent one-two-three-four attack, show the band has the hit-making material to launch a surprise pop career seemingly out of nowhere, much like The Fray and Maroon 5 did in 2006 and 2003 respectively. Comparisons to How To Save A Life and Songs About Jane are going to have to be par for the course for this band in the months and years to come.

Such comparisons, however, only heighten the power of Dreaming Out Loud, which manages to fill its running length with songs containing the anthemic power of U2 and the musical dexterity of Coldplay with the popsmith-smarts of Adam Levine, Rob Thomas and The Fray's Isaac Slade, all while managing to keep their sound on its own distinct plane. They accomplish this while writing an album worth of songs which play out like a real album! It's an impressive accomplishment in this age of digital downloads, where a fan can buy just the songs they want. It's become easier for a band to fall into the label trap of recording nothing but singles, to lure fans to purchase the whole album. OneRepublic has its share of potential hits, but the album tracks are equally as compelling.

Most notable among these is "Tyrant," the album's stunning centerpiece, which plays out as a mini-opera at the album's core. The song opens with eerie keyboard strokes which build with staccato percussion intensity into a mightily ear-catching chorus, only to drop back to the bare piano chords again, continually keeping the listener dangerously off-kilter. The song's overall composition is tightly constructed, to where none of the single's five minute running length seems wasted or overlong. This song alone assured me that the band, and Tedder in particular, has the potential to launch a legitimate pop career. He doesn't take the easy road, choosing to let the song play out as it should, rather than trimming it down to its chorus and launching it as a radio single.

It never ceases to amaze me that music critics, including myself, often dismiss pop music as a waste of time and energy. Pop music, by definition, is whatever happens to be most popular at the time. So perhaps it is easier to trash something in that vein while we look for the latest underground guy to champion. In the case of OneRepublic, I passed them by because I'd heard that Tedder, one of pop music’s most popular commodities, had produced music for Hillary Duff and Natasha Bedingfield, while writing tracks for the likes of Jennifer Lopez. So much for his credibility, I thought. How could this guy's album be worth hearing if he’d affiliate himself with that ilk?

Because of that early rush to judgment, I nearly missed out on one of the most sonically inventive pop albums of 2007. Here’s hoping the rest of you don't make the same mistake.