The Fray - How To Save A Life

Denver piano-pop rockers out to write catchy tunes, not reinvent wheel

Filled mostly with slowish ballads about relationships failed, imagined and anticipated, How To Save A Life churns out one accessible tune after another, haunting you with Isaac Slade’s Chris Martin/Jon Foreman-esque voice. It’s the familiarity that brings you back to it—listening over and over again, hoping you can pinpoint the musical antecedent. But instead, you end up realizing you’ve just heard the track enough times that it finally sounds like itself. Simply put, they do what they do, and they do it well. The standout track, “Little House,” is equal parts guitar-god riffs and Jeunet-soundtrack-style piano, rocking from cinematic beginning to wildly abrupt ending. If the song’s eventual video doesn’t include the band playing in a rainstorm, I’ll be disappointed.