Simplicity Carries A Shower Of Sparks

The Fray - The Fray
95%

The Fray are back with a new disc to kick some ass! Okay so, as opposed I am to CDs with 10 tracks only, it seems those are the best of them all (ex, The Killers - Day & Age). This is just another example of that fact. The Fray's self-titled sophomore album is only 10 songs long, but each packs something worth listening to, meaning it's extremely difficult to go through the whole CD by skipping songs because they're not just singing about the same old thing over and over again. The fact that every song is equally great makes it difficult to rate from 1 - 10, meaning favourites are all across the board here. Each song is almost perfect. Syndicate starts the disc with a melodic intro to The Fray's original style. Raw piano and gutair riffs in the background. Feels good to be home. Then Absolute turns the tables and goes darker into the emotional universe. The song is about uncertainty yet certainty, more or less a musical thesis and antithesis about love. Definately a stand-out track. Then the head single You Found Me comes next. It's a more-or-less open letter to "the man upstairs" which is an emotionally striking, yet catchy song. This mixture plays well with the piano/gutair motion. Say When kicks off next and so far takes the spotlight. The song is powerful from every direction and takes over your ears like some mix of hard rock and soft pop taunting you. The album then slows down to Never Say Never, which is an amazing song, but poses the first problem for this CD, there is so much repetition, that it feels like a time filler was just needed to boost the CD. Then Where The Story Ends picks up and lifts up every part that got you down previously. Followed by the ballad Enough For Now which can bring tears to the eyes of many if correctly listening. The next soft ballad comes in where Joe takes the mic from Isaac and sings about his leaving girlfriend. The song is great, yet repetitive near the end. Beautiful all the same. We Build Then We Break comes after, and totally shifts from normal Fray songs. Its heavy drums and gutair make it more intense than the band has ever been. Again, repetition becomes the common factor, but here it isn't as vivid because it is so blasphemous. The album closes with, without a doubt, the best Fray song of all time, known as Happiness. And its simplicity gently rises in your mind. It is a philosophical ballad, but its worth every milisecond of the 5 and a half minute period. It closes the album with a choir singing off in the distance and Isaacs vocal chords resting for the finale of a lifetime. There is no way any last song on a CD will ever beat this close.
In the end, repetition is such a small scar when the disc itself is so magnificent. Is it even fair to create an order for their greatness?

Tracks:

1. Syndicate * (9)
2. Absolute * (3)
3. You Found Me * (8)
4. Say When * (5)
5. Never Say Never * (10)
6. Where The Story Ends * (6)
7. Enough For Now * (2)
8. Ungodly Hour * (7)
9. We Build Then We Break * (4)
10. Happiness * (1)