New Music: One Republic

OK, here's the thing: "Apologize" does nothing for me. I think it sounds like it's O.R.'s trying too hard. So I was really surprised when I heard their new album, "Dreaming Out Loud", and really enjoyed it. It's not groundbreaking, but it's totally listenable and worth an hour of your time. I assumed One Republic was going to turn out to be one of those 1.5-hit wonders like The Fray, but this is a really solid album that could put them on the map for a while. Here's the video for their upcoming single "Mercy", a song that's ten thousand times better than anything I had come to expect from "The Apologize Band".