Music Notes

Wild Life

My tenth and final track choice is OneRepublic's Wild Life, released in September 2020 as part of the soundtrack for the Disney+ movie Clouds.

Quite a story lies behind this song. Being released at the height of the pandemic, it basically went in one ear and out my other. I couldn't have told you, without looking it up, when exactly it came out or what show it was associated with. I was under the pressures of trying to survive a toxic, unreliable and overtaxing work environment while trying to avoid catching Covid and dealing with my finances, and my creative side had all but deteriorated.

I took one look at the preliminary music video, composed of super-cringe clips of snuggling teenyboppers and other "precious moments" from the movie, and dismissed the whole song as being not worth my time. Which obviously, if you know anything about me by now, was a very unnatural thing for me to do.

Months later, over the summer of 2021, as I put my scattered brain back together, I took some time to sit down and watch all the other videos associated with Wild Life. There's an official 1R music video, which shows an intricately choreographed pair of interracial lovers dancing in the wilderness. I liked that about as much as the one with the movie clips

The best video was a special performance 1R filmed of the song while under lockdown. Each member of the band, sitting at home alone, set up a camera and showed themselves in studio as they all, somehow, live, remotely and simultaneously, managed to play Wild Life together. You have to see it to appreciate the finesse required. Ryan Tedder poured his heart into singing, giving us his best melisma

harmoniously drawing out notes

and flashing the peace sign at the end with his unique lopsided smile. It was a comforting display of pandemic unity.

I still didn't truly appreciate the song, however, not even after making an art piece with a screenshot from the performance video. Indeed, after watching the videos once, I forgot Wild Life existed for a couple years. It wasn't until I started seriously beefing up my personal offline playlist in 2023 (first half… second half of the year was spent on WdC) that I remembered to download it. Then, finally, without the visual distractions of videos, I discovered how relaxing and beautiful the song truly is.

For me, the soaring instrumental brings forth imagery of sweeping drone footage of nature amidst flocks of birds in the distance. It is at once soothing and exciting, dramatic yet peaceful, as Ryan Tedder reminds us to live life without holding back.

Wild Life is the perfect track to complete my participation in "Barrel of Monkeys"  hosted by Jeff . It's a song which exemplifies everything I love about OneRepublic, with "all the feels" production, heartfelt lyrics, and clear evidence of a band that knows what it does best.

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