This Colorado-bred, L.A.-based quintet's arena-rock ambitions are obvious. Their songs recall the grandeur of such acts as U2 and Coldplay, with big, explosive choruses and frontman Ryan Tedder's soaring vocals declaiming lyrics that...
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This Colorado-bred, L.A.-based quintet's arena-rock ambitions are obvious. Their songs recall the grandeur of such acts as U2 and Coldplay, with big, explosive choruses and frontman Ryan Tedder's soaring vocals declaiming lyrics that are open-ended enough for fans to imprint their own meanings on them. In a song like "Mercy," for instance, some degree of kindness is being meted out, but Tedder isn't saying why or for what, even though his sense of desperation is palpable.
On "Apology," a remixed version of which appeared on Timbaland's "Shock Value" album, a relationship seems to be ending, with Tedder declaring in the lyrics, "It's too late to apologize." But the song ends with him dangling from a metaphorical rope, telling his presumed lover that he's "holding on, 10 feet off the ground."
The same fill-in-the-blanks lyrical method plays out across the group's entire debut disc, through tracks like the urgent "Tyrant" and the ethereal "Sleep" and "Too Easy," on which Tedder employs a Thom Yorke-like falsetto wail. There's something going on in these songs; what, exactly, isn't always clear. What is certain, though, is that this is a band that, after turning a MySpace sensation into a major label concern, is going places in spite -- or maybe because of -- their aversion to being pinned-down to lyrical specifics.
