OneRepublic’s “Connection” has the kind of chorus that gets lodged in your brain from the very first listen, which makes it an easy, breezy contender for the most underrated song of the summer. Radio programmers haven’t jumped on it yet (despite very healthy downloads), but that could change with the arrival of its arty, attention-grabbing video. The Joel Pront-directed clip finds Ryan Tedder walking around The Oculus in New York City, while a woman does an interpretative dance routine — choreographed by Matthew Peacock— in a crowd of people.
It’s striking and effortlessly conveys the track’s main theme. “Basically the whole idea was, and a lot of what this album is about, is human connection,” OneRepublic’s frontman told Beats 1. “Trying to find authenticity and authentic connection. This is kind of one of like four or five that we honestly couldn’t decide what to put out first. In the history of One Republic, the biggest single is never the first thing we released — it’s usually the second or the third. So all things being equal we kind of said, ‘Ok, well… [this sounds] like a summer record. Let’s put it out and then two months later, let’s put out another one.’”
