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Oh My My (album)

Oh My My is the fourth studio album by American pop rock band OneRepublic. It was released on October 7, 2016, through Mosley Music Group and Interscope Records, three years after the release of the band's third studio album, Native (2013). Due to Native's success with the tracks "Counting Stars" and "Love Runs Out", Oh My My incorporates some elements of their electronic production. Ryan Tedder, the band's lead singer, songwriter and producer, focused on lyrics about optimism, love, and overcoming past traumas.

For the JTR album, see JTR (band).

Oh My My

October 7, 2016 (2016-10-07)

2014–2016

60:26

Seeking to escape the purely electronic sound that was high on the radio at the time, the band used instruments that left the album's sound organic, while not sounding outdated. Along with band members Tedder, Kutzle and Skelton, the album was produced by Benny Blanco and Noel Zancanella, who had previously worked on their previous albums. Marking a radical departure from pop rock from its predecessor works, Oh My My is built around electropop, arena rock and groovy, inspired by genres such as country, funk and gospel, resulting in an electronic production consisting of new-age music and rhythmic beats. Oh My My was the band's album with the most tracks on its standard version, and featured guest appearances by French band Cassius on the title track "Oh My My", as well as former Genesis rock band lead singer Peter Gabriel on the track "A.I." and singer-songwriter Santigold on the track "NbHD".


Three international singles—"Wherever I Go", "Kids" and "Let's Hurt Tonight"—supported the album; they peaked at number fifty-five and ninety-six on the Billboard Hot 100, with the latter being included as a track in the film Collateral Beauty and peaking number twenty-one on Billboard Adult Top 40. "Future Looks Good" and "A.I." preceded the album as promotional tracks. Critical response to Oh My My was generally positive. Reviewers were divided on the album's exaggerated size and overproduction, making Tedder's voice a background to focus on instrumental sounds and electropop beats, but praised Tedder's songwriting and the band's impetus to step out of their comfort zone and explore a different loudness than the conventional.


The album was OneRepublic's second consecutive album to debut in the top five on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 3 in its first week and surpassing the debut of their previous album, Native, by one position and reaching the top five in several countries, including Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Switzerland. Unlike the band's previous albums, Oh My My had lower sales than expected, a factor influenced by the low promotion carried out and the lack of a hit single. A concert tour promoting the album was planned for early 2017, but canceled after the physical, emotional and psychological health issues involving Tedder. Despite this, the band promoted the album singles with a smaller-scale tour, 16th Annual Honda Civic Tour (2017), sponsored by Honda. A re-release of the album with only eleven tracks was made on December 2, 2016, exclusively for retail and digital in the United States.

Background and composition[edit]

Talking to Wonderland Magazine about Oh My My, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder spoke about what fans could expect from the album: "Everything – you could do an entire album on a laptop these days, and some of the biggest records are all electronic laptop driven, and there's a lot of humanity, I think, missing in radio. And so we wanted to make sure that you could actually hear the human beings and the actual instruments that are in the actual songs, so that's the last thing I'll say. It's new and very modern but there's still a big dose of humanity in it because you can actually hear the players."[1] In a later interview with Billboard, Tedder revealed that the album took eighteen months to record, which was "the longest amount of time [the band had] ever spent on one project[...]We did a lot of living in the last four years -- there was a lot to write about."[2]


On August 25, the band tweeted that the new album was called Oh My My and would come out on October 7, 2016.[3] The artwork for the album was revealed six days later.[4][5]

Commercial performance[edit]

Oh My My debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 with 46,000 units, of which 35,000 were traditional album sales.[29] Unlike their two previous albums Waking Up and Native, Oh My My proved not to be a slowburner and left most of the major music markets' charts notably fast, most likely due to the lack of a hit single. Ryan Tedder later addressed the band's absence from promoting the album, citing anxiety and mental fatigue as the key reason.[30]