I'm biased when it comes to The Fray, not only because they're the best-selling band to come out of Colorado, but because they're the best selling band to come out of Faith Christian High School, where two of my daughters graduated and my son is currently a senior. It's not often that a friend of your daughter hits 3 million in worldwide sales, as frontman Isaac Slade has managed with How To Save a Life. To put that in perspective, Third Day has only double those sales after releasing a dozen albums since 1996, and they are considered one of the biggest names in Christian music.
It's always interesting to see how a band follows up monster success after a few years of touring. I imagine that the grind of the music biz is what keeps the angst alive as inspiration for those minor chord introspective ballads we've come to expect. So what does The Fray offer up? There's no doubt that "You Found Me" is the big hit from this project, but a few others definitely have TV/movie soundtrack potential and will be heard from. I enjoyed "Ungodly Hour," and "We Build Then We Break" has some interesting musical flavors. I've always enjoyed The Fray, but after a few songs I often feel the need to listen to something a little more uptempo, although "Where The Story Ends" provides some of that. The biggest surprise for me when I ripped the CD to start reviewing it was that the songs had been categorized under the "Rock" genre, something the band has never really been, other than a few scattered moments here and there. Of course, there's no way to escape the Coldplay references. Piano-driven mid-tempo angst pop has a huge following these days, and bands like The Fray should be surfing that wave for a few more successful years.
INO has joined the marketing team to handle Christian radio and outlets, a dual approach that we've seen from bands like needtobreathe and Skillet in the past. The Fray will be coming to TV shows near you, as well as to both Christian bookstores and mainstream outlets. Die-hard Fray fans will love every track, so I have no doubt that The Fray will be another platinum album for the boys from Denver.
Visit The Fray.