Waking Up is the second studio album by American rock band OneRepublic, released through Interscope Records on November 17, 2009. Despite being released to mixed reviews, the album peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200. Lead singer Ryan Tedder has stated in an interview that Jerrod Bettis, OneRepublic's former drummer, had come up with the idea for the album cover while in Seattle.
Background
After the success of OneRepublic's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, they began work on a second album in 2008. Lead singer Ryan Tedder announced on July 21, 2009, that the band's second album would be completed five weeks from that date which was August 25, 2009. On September 6, 2009, the band posted a low-quality version of the first single from their second album, "All the Right Moves", while a higher quality version could be found on their MySpace page. On September 8, 2009, the band posted samples of 4 of their songs from the new album onto their MySpace page. Eleven songs were announced to make up the track list, which was officially confirmed by Amazon's German site on November 3, 2009.
Promotion and release
Waking Up was released through Interscope Records on November 17, 2009, in North America, November 20, in Australia, while being released on November 13 in Germany and not until January 18, 2010, in the United Kingdom. A deluxe version of the album was released exclusively in North America at the same time as the standard version. The album was completed on August 25, 2009. The lead single from the album, "All the Right Moves", was released on September 29, 2009, for airplay and officially released on October 6, 2009. The lead single in Germany, "Secrets" was released on October 30, 2009, and it was released as a single in the US on June 1, 2010. The first single from Waking Up, "All the Right Moves", was released for radio airplay on September 29, 2009, and then received an official release digitally on October 6, 2009. The music video for the single was released on October 8, 2009. It has peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. OneRepublic then digitally released "Everybody Loves Me" on October 20, 2009, after having already posted a snippet of the song along with three others on their MySpace page. "Good Life" was then released digitally on November 10, peaking at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Secrets" was released as the lead single from the album in Germany for airplay on September 21, 2009 and was released digitally on October 30, 2009, in Germany. It was also released on November 3, 2009 as the album's second digital single in the US. "Secrets" was released as a single in Germany due to the fact that it is being used as the title song in the film Zweiohrküken, the sequel to Keinohrhasen, which used the band's song "Apologize" as the title song. The song was also featured in the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The song "Marchin On" was selected to support the German TV channel ZDF and serves as the channel's official FIFA 2010 World Cup song. It was released for digital download in Germany on June 18, 2010. The song "Good Life" is featured on the advertisements for the films Eat Pray Love and One Day, as well as advertisements for Disneyland and Honda.
Reception
The album received mixed reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album 2.5/5 stars and criticized it for having "no joy, only dogged diligence, an alienating insistence that texture means more than warmth or melody." Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine gave the album 1.5/5 stars and stated that "OneRepublic's music just isn't that interesting". Conversely, August Brown of The Los Angeles Times gave the album 3/4 stars and acknowledged that "the band needs to stop mistaking the cello as an inherently "meaningful" instrument" but ultimately concluded that "OneRepublic is using old tricks even better than he is lately. Sputnikmusic also gave the album a 3/5 "Good" rating and summarized that "further ambition results in marginal progression, but Coldplay need not fear just yet." BBC's Mike Diver criticized the lyrics for being "saccharine and suffocating of faux-emoting", but admitted that "despite its obvious shortcomings, it’s hard to criticize too heavily", ultimately concluding that it's "oddly admirable". The album currently holds a 61 score on Metacritic based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
