O.A.R.
Sep 26, 2011
O.A.R.'s Wind-up Records debut album, King, marks a new beginning for the band, while also paying homage to their past. It is the seventh studio effort in a career that began with their high school recording, The Wanderer. Bringing back the title character from their first album, O.A.R. takes the listener on a journey to discover that what the Wanderer, and the band members themselves, had been searching for all along, was there from the beginning.
King is O.A.R.'s follow-up to their 2008 studio album All Sides, which debuted at #13 on the Billboard Top 200 and #3 on the Digital Album chart. The album provided many firsts for the band including their first Certified Platinum single "Shattered," which in 2009 was the #6 best-selling Rock Song at iTunes and earned them an ASCAP Award as one of the Most Performed Pop Songs of the Year. With All Sides, the band's cumulative album sales reached close to 2 million and they received the honor of being on Performing Songwriter's list of the 100 Most Influential Independent Artists of the Past 15 Years.
To begin work on King, released on August 2nd, the band embarked on a journey to each band member's hometown. The first stop was at The Metro in Chicago, home to drummer Chris Culos. From there the band moved on to Columbus, OH's (Jerry DePizzo) brand-new 1305 complex; Washington, DC's (Richard On) legendary punk studio Inner Ear; and New York's (Benj Gershman and Marc Roberge) historic Avatar Studios. Like The Wanderer completing his odyssey back to where he started, the band members returned home for inspiration and to prepare for their next adventure.
Songs like "Taking on the World Today," "The Last Time," "Gotta Live" and the stark piano ballad "Over and Over," began to take on new meaning. Inspired by producers Matt Wallace and Gregg Wattenberg, O.A.R. began to hone in on the emotional essence of the songs, blending their more traditional reggae roots with new musical elements they had picked up over their fifteen years performing together. The new tracks contain moments of uplift ("Gotta Be Wrong Sometimes"), shimmering guitars ("The Last Time"), world beat ("Gotta Live"), populist fervor ("Fire," "Dangerous Connection"), narrative prowess ("Almost Easy") and even hip-hop.
The first single "Heaven," which was the last song to be written, served as the centerpiece for the album's central theme and is their newest radio friendly hit.
