Music Notes

Artificial Paradise (title track), by OneRepublic

I'll be getting into OneRepublic's 2024 album, Artificial Paradise, released in July, starting off with the title track. At one minute and thirty-eight seconds long, Artificial Paradise is more a trailer, a taste of what the album theme will be, than a complete song on its own. 1R throws in tracks like this every so often; they enjoy working with extended instrumental sessions and even tracks which are almost like two songs in one.

Sound

One of the peculiar things about the AP album is that half of the songs on it were previously released as singles over the course of three or four years. This made it hard for me at first to pin down any one particular stylistic theme or overarching "narrative" which it seemed to convey.

During one interview, lead singer, lyricist and primary 1R producer Ryan Tedder described the upcoming album as being influenced by his current obsession with The Mamas and The Papas. The single released at the time, West Coast, seemed to match, featuring backing harmonies and a "California Dreaming" theme. Yet a later single, Mirage, featuring an Arabic artist and used in a video game, seemed far too edgy and hip-hop flavored to possibly be considered under the same umbrella.

Once all the songs were released and the Super Deluxe acoustic bonus series came out, I began to realize the grand theme of Artificial Paradise. Really, you can get an idea of it by staring at the two or three different cover art pieces. It's kind of hard to put into words without sounding like I've consumed magic mushrooms…

The album's overall sound, as well as this track specifically, resembles a close encounter with aliens. No, seriously. In a synesthetic sort of way, many of the instrumentals throughout Artificial Paradise illustrate tension and mystery and floating through the starlit skies, dodging UFOs. As I work through other tracks this month, I'll explain further.

Theme

Artificial Paradise, the album, carries an overarching narrative of surrealist, slightly tongue-in-cheek questioning of reality. Sometimes there's a note of sadness, of maturity and a desire to escape. Yet even while this reality is in doubt, you're encouraged to live it to the fullest, love those close to you, and look for meaning in the simple blessings of what you have.

Artificial Paradise, the title track, sets up the initial playful surrealism haunting the album, by asking us if we're all ghosts in the machine, yet assuring us that as long as we're together, it hardly even matters.

Significance

This song helped me understand the underlying themes of the sprawling AP album and why it combines an unlikely pairing of West Coast retro and postmodernist "space-out." It's a brief and memorable introduction to an album which helped shape my summer last year.

Words: 485.