The Fray

‘Scars & Stories’

Release Date: Feb. 7

Music label: Epic Records

3 out of 5 Decibels

Top Track: Heartbeat

Sounds Like: Their first and second album

Take a sappy love ballad, throw in some pop rock, slap on the piano skills of Isaac Slade, mix it all together and you’ve got The Fray’s latest album, ‘Scars & Stories.’

The band traveled the world for inspiration, drawing on experiences it gained from Rwanda to the Colorado mountains. But the band doesn’t stray far from its usual somber yet sweet sound.

The Denver quartet, one of the biggest alternative rock groups around today, earned global popularity with songs such as ‘Over my Head (Cable Car)’ and ‘How to Save a Life.’ These tunes offered alternative rock that was also wonderfully mainstream.

The Fray’s latest album has both beautiful ballads and a few up-tempo tunes that talk about love, relationships and war, but that’s pretty much what they’ve always covered. We still hear plenty of piano and lead singer Slade’s high falsetto, which we’ve grown to love.

Lyrically, the songs are beautiful and many have deep meanings. ‘Heartbeat’ is one of the band’s more upbeat love songs with a guitar-driven sound and catchy chorus. According to Paste Magazine, it was inspired by the band’s trip to Rwanda, where a local woman told about her experience with genocide. As she took Slade’s hand in hers, he recalled feeling a pulse and the rest is history.

In ‘1961,’ the band personifies the Berlin Wall through two brothers who technically come from the same place but are separated. The group approaches this through a danceable track with a pop beat and chorus, which repeats, ‘It won’t be the same,’ lyrics that are, ironically, the same.

The album struggles to churn out the big hits the band is used to. ‘How to Save a Life’ gained the band mainstream success after it played on ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ but none of the new songs are exactly McSteamy status. ‘Heartbeat,’ the album’s first single, and ‘Turn Me On’ are the album’s best bets. Both are up-tempo, catchy and radio-friendly. However, the band’s soft and subtle tendency is exuded through ‘Be Still,’ a beautiful ballad telling a loved one that he or she is not alone.

The Fray gives us another dose of the same sound they’ve been serving up since their first album. They gained mainstream success from their pop-rock hits with gloomy topics, piano solos and, of course, their secret weapon: Slade’s vocals, which sound like he’s in pain, topped with plenty of falsetto. And since it isn’t broken yet, the band didn’t fix it. The Fray’s decision to stick with their usual sound may have crippled the album. All of their songs have a similar sound, so many of them seem to blend together into a jumble of somber, piano-filled sameness.

It may not be cutting edge, but The Fray put out a decent album in ‘Scars & Stories.’ It is a good mix of ballads and dancy tunes about love and even deeper topics, with great vocal performances. The pop-rock sound it offers won’t turn Fray haters into fans, but it will give the band’s followers another album to jam to.

inyang@syr.edu

Published on February 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ibet: ieinyang@syr.edu