The Fray's How To Save A Life.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Hello there.
After discussing it with Shristy, I've decided to do an album by album review of The Fray. I have decided to do as such because to me, reviewing a band/musician that I hold close to my heart is a monumental task. Also, I feel like I should apologise for the pathetic Tony Tran post. Don't fret though; it won't be the last you'll read about that great man.
First of all, I feel like I need to convince you guys to go along with me on this long ass musical journey. In my opinion, The Fray is one of the most underrated bands in the past 15 years. In fact, they are one of the reasons why I started this blog; I wanted to shine the light on more relatively unknown and yet great artistes, or in this case, underrated and under-celebrated bands. Yes, their more popular songs like "How To Save A Life", "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and their cover of "Heartless" are good and have kind of allowed The Fray to have "made it", but I feel like for this band, to truly find the heart (and gems) of the band, you need to sit your ass down and comb through their albums, hence the need for an album by album review.
On to "How to Save a Life".
First things first, I know they're a piano-driven band, but out of all of their albums (so far), this is their most piano-driven album. In every song, the piano is very prominent, and you may not realise this at first, after just listening to this album, but when you get to Scars & Stories, or even just their self-titled album, you'd notice the difference. I guess the constant piano to the ears is due to this being their first studio album, and hey, I'm not complaining. It's always great to hear the piano "take the lead" in rock music (maybe I'm just a biased keyboardist).
For a rock album, this one's a relatively slow one, but the thing is, it's appropriate for the messages of the tracks. Take "Look After You" for example. When the song starts out, the song just grabs your attention as it has this sense of comfort about it. Like if it is possible, you would not mind falling into the song because you know that that song will be there to catch you, comfort you, protect you somehow, and that is exactly what I feel Isaac is trying to convey here to his then-girlfriend. It's really a great song, and it is a pity it didn't get as big as the other two songs in the album.
Another song I would like to highlight is "Vienna". This song is one of those songs that you'd blast in your empty room as the rain is pouring, and it's honestly one of the best ways to experience a song. It is one of those songs (along with "Look After You" and a number of the Fray's other songs) where when it comes up on your iPod/whatever device you use to listen to music, you have to stop whatever you're doing to fully pay attention and "take in" the song. This may make me sound like some music nerd, but the fact that it is in 3/4 really makes me happy haha. Anyway, here's the song in full:
I guess that's the end of part 1. I do apologise for the late post as I really didn't know how to start, or even end this thing. MEOW.
Dan out.
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