Dripping from your stereo like a wetter, more rancid Keane, The Fray have notched up two million US album sales on the back of a berth on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. Clearly, they’ve found their niche, plying bland, self-consciously ‘empowering’ ballads to the sedate masses of Middle America. One wonders whether the feat will be repeated over here.
Unquestionably, frontman Isaac Slade has a way with affirmative melodies. Unfortunately, he can only really write one type of song: a sappy, sub-Coldplay dirge that rises from gentle piano flutter to glib guitar crescendo. Things travel rapidly downhill, in fact, after the album’s admittedly persuasive opener (and title-track), ‘How To Save A Life’. Chronicling Slade’s experiences working as a volunteer among Denver crackheads, the song waxes faux sincerity but at least musters a serviceable chorus.
Elsewhere, The Fray flounder in a tide of well-intentioned gloop. The real deal breaker, however, are Slade’s lyrics. Raised in a strict Pentecostal household, the frontman has a murky history as Christian rocker and clumsy references to the Almighty litter How To Save A Life. Jesus must be spinning in his grave.