It’s really hard to talk about why you love a band because it’s extremely hard to put into words how their music makes you feel (yes, I get how lame that sounds). But I’m going to try to explain why The Fray are one of my favourite bands, so bear with me.
I remember the first time I heard The Fray, like properly heard them, it was in an episode of One Tree Hill and it was their track ‘Look After You’—which is one of my all time favourite songs. As soon as I heard it my hair stood on end, my eyes became full, and I was just in love with The Fray.
It’s hard to explain why I love this band so much, I mean, let’s face it, they’re 40% wonderful melodies and 60% sadness. ‘How To Save A Life’ is literally one of the most depressing songs I’ve ever heard and it was actually the reason why I didn’t like The Fray at first. The song was just way too sad and at the time I was in my early teenage years, and I just really wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle that kind of music. The most depressing songs I knew came from 90s pop punk bands, Aerosmith or Channel U musicians… yeah, let’s just ignore the last one shall we?
The Fray is usually referred to as a pop rock band, but they are definitely more on the depressing, soft rock side. They are deep, their lyrics make you think, their melodies make you tearful and Isaac Slade’s voice continuously sends shivers down your spine. They just have that effect on people.
From upbeat pop rock tunes like ‘Hurricane’ (from their most recent album Helios), to their more depressing, emo songs like ‘Vienna’ (How To Save A Life), The Fray are constantly evolving and changing their sound, yet remaining true to the thing that makes their music so enchanting.
Whether it’s a heart-wrenching ballad like ‘Never Say Never’, or an upbeat pop rock track like ‘Turn Me On’, the Fray have this essence about them, a certain magic, a spark that causes whatever lyric or note they are playing to be amplified. You can feel their music vibrate through your whole body.
I like that The Fray don’t need volume to be powerful. They sing soft, they play slow, but they can make me stop everything in an instant. They give a whole new meaning to the word hypnotising.
I guess the band holds some sentimental value for me since I discovered them quite young, when watching my favourite show One Tree Hill. But even more than that, their songs evoke something in me, and in my opinion, any band that can constantly make me feel something so deeply (even sadness) deserve to be one of my favourites.
So if you enjoy mesmerising vocals, emotional ballads, and well, crying, you’ll love The Fray.
