After the phenomenal success of their collaboration with Timbaland, this is our chance to see what OneRepublic can deliver. Most pundits have been waiting to see what a big hit songwriter like Tedder can deliver.

The result? A big-sounding mid tempo rock anthem with the kind of hook you’d expect from someone like Tedder.

There’s a ‘but’, though. Stop And Stare is very by-the-numbers rock. Coming from the brains behind Leona’s Bleeding Love, I would have expected to hear something much less safe. But according to this interview with a Canadian magazine, Tedder isn’t taking chances with this album.

I’m sort of reluctant to write off the efforts of OneRepublic just yet. I can guarantee that Stop And Stare has all the ingredients for it to be just as massive as Apologize was, and that it’ll be as overplayed on the radio as its predecessor was. It just won’t be the genre re-defining music I was hoping for.

I’ve been hearing Apologize all week on the radio, and it’s got to be the best track off Timbaland’s Shock Value album.

Apologize is the first slow song to be released from the album. It’s a remix of OneRepublic’s original version, retaining Ryan Tedder’s vocal. And in keeping with anything Timbaland does, it’s completely genre-busting, avoiding any hint of cliche at all.

With Timbaland behind it, Apologize is a surefire hit anyway, but completely deserves to be. Tedder’s vocals are just brilliant.

I haven’t listened to the Shock Value album yet, but I reckon that this is one of the best tracks yet.