Oh My My

Oh My My is the fourth studio album released by pop-rock band OneRepublic. The album was released October 7, 2016, via Interscope.

A large extent of the album’s marketing centered around the fact that the album was recorded all around the globe. With this, it pulls influences from various different genres. The album is the band’s most diverse, adventurous, and experimental album yet.

Lyrically, the album has an optimistic message of acceptance. In particular, accepting the hardships that come with being human and trying to live life to the fullest with these hardships. This message is communicated by an eclectic collection of songs that touch on various topics, yet still tie back to the message of accepting life’s flaws with valor.

The first single arrived May 12, 2016 with the up-tempo “Wherever I Go”. It was a moderately successful lead single for the album peaking at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #29 in the UK. The next single was the nostalgic “Kids”. Two more tracks came out before the release of the album: “Future Looks Good” and “A.I (feat. Peter Gabriel)”. After the album’s release, “Let’s Hurt Tonight” was released as the final single for Oh My My.

Oh My My was received generally well by critics and fans alike, who both recognized the album as a bold and refreshing direction for the band. However, despite strong first week sales that prompted the album to debut at number 3 on the Billboard 200, making it the group’s highest charting album, Oh My My ultimately did significantly worse commercially compared to their previous three albums. This was mainly due to not having a huge hit single on the album, as well as the dramatic shift in popular music that was going on during 2016.

On the album, Ryan Tedder said:

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."