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The Fray by The Fray

The Fray

Release Date: 2/3/2009

Recording Date: 2/2009

Tracks: 10

Label: Epic

Type: CD,LP

Genre/Styles:
United States of America, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, American Trad Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock

Album Tracks (10)

Song Title
Length
1.
Syndicate
03:32
2.
Absolute
03:49
3.
You Found Me
04:03
4.
Say When
05:04
5.
Never Say Never
04:18
6.
Where the Story Ends
03:57
7.
Enough for Now
04:17
8.
Ungodly Hour
05:07
9.
We Build Then We Break
03:48
10.
Happiness
05:24

What the Critics Say

The Fray's second album picks up where How to Save a Life left off, revisiting the same blend of piano-led balladry and midtempo pop/rock that helped establish the band in 2005. International tours and platinum-selling singles may have turned the Fray into superstars, but the actual songwriting remains unchanged, with songs like "You Found Me" and "Enough for Now" sounding quite similar to their predecessors. Those parallels are strengthened by producers Aaron Johnson and Mike Flynn, both of whom helped record How to Save a Life and repeat the job here to predictable effect. What's different, then, is the occasional "widening" of the Fray's sound; the rock numbers are slightly louder (culminating in a percussive, distorted breakdown during "We Build Then We Break") and the ballads somewhat softer, with "Ungodly Hour" standing out as the sparsest of the bunch. The band sounds uncomfortable with either extreme, though, either overshooting the rockers or reducing the ballads to little more than Isaac Slade's zealous vocals, which are often so garbled by his angsty, passionate delivery that they might as well be caricaturing the American accent. Like the rest of his bandmates, Slade is most comfortable in the middle, where the Fray comfortably churns out the album's best numbers: the minor-keyed "Absolute"; "Syndicate" (whose guitar riff in 6/4 time is perhaps the disc's only quirky moment); and the platinum-selling single "You Found Me." It's testament to the band's appeal that "You Found Me" became a Top Ten single before this album was even released, but that probably speaks to its familiarity -- this is, after all, the equivalent of How to Save a Life, Pt. 2 -- rather than any originality. ~ Andrew Leahey, Rovi

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