Albums and Abominations: 'Scars & Stories' hemorrhages heartbreak

By Benjamin Huber-Rodriguez     2/22/12 6:00pm

You probably remember The Fray. It is the band that sings "How to Save a Life," that song that was always on the radio in middle school. It has been over three years since the last time singer-songwriter Isaac Slade crooned at us with his sore throat and heartbroken wail of a voice, so maybe The Fray has adapted. After all, the band spent the last year touring the world and writing music about its experiences. Surely that would inspire some truly artistic commentary, right? The problem is that Slade can rewrite any experience into a romance ballad emphasizing the cruelty of the world, and on Scars & Stories, he delivers 12 of them.

The idea of a band traveling the world, meeting interesting people from exotic cultures and all walks of life, and then writing songs about the stories it was told sounds awfully appealing. Fans can picture an album filled with instrumentals and lyrics influenced by various varieties of world music that accomplish a rock-and-roll record which transcends genres and tells the true tales of Earth's inhabitants. Unfortunately for this style of approach, many lyricists find it difficult to tell non-fictional stories about people other than themselves. Somehow, a singer always sounds terribly cliche when attempting to regale a listener with a real-life tragedy. Still, the attempt often sounds at least earnest, and accomplished bands can make the music pull it off. The songs we're given on Scars & Stories, on the other hand, find themselves on the opposite side of the world, missing the mark by about 15,000 miles.

The album's opener, "Heartbeat," is supposed to be about a poverty-stricken woman Slade met in war-torn Rwanda, but with lyrics like "Think I can feel the breath in your body /We gotta keep on running ‘til we see the sun," the song comes off as a sappy and cringe-worthy romance ballad. Slade continues to mix up the ideas behind the stories of his muses and his insistence that the world is out to get him and his lover, who must fight to survive as the last true beacons of purity in this world. "The Fighter" features a boxer getting his lights punched out while his lover cries his name and holds his hand. "Run for Your Life" had the potential to be a chilling reminder of the violence on Earth, but instead Slade powers through with superficial lyrics like, "Run for your life, my love run and you don't give up/It's all that you are all that ?you want."  

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While it's true that many popular bands utilize cliche themes and overused story arcs, Scars & Stories suffers from other issues, namely the way Slade sings these Hallmark cards put to melody. He is so heartbroken all the time, so tortured and tormented. This can result in terrible melodies for one of two reasons. Either he's unable to adapt from the previous two albums, or perhaps worse, he actually believes in this stuff.  He might actually think these are deep, intricate artworks that truly capture the suffering and strife of the world and that he's helping to evangelize them in some kind of artistic ascension.

It's not all Slade's fault, though. The other three members of The Fray work pretty hard to make sure the listener receives the same exact treatment on all 12 tracks. Each song is composed of the same set of instruments: a large echoing rhythm guitar poking along in various harmonics, a lead guitar, a simple bass line and the same lagging, open drum rhythms that keep a painfully boring, slow tempo through each and every melancholy track. Nothing feels as grinding as the sweet little angel chorus belting "oohs" and "aahs" through these symphonic choruses. The supposedly grandiose songs just end up schmaltzy and ironically prosaic.    

The album may have been redeemed by a couple of fetching hooks and some more of that piano lead that we have all grown to love, but sadly, those radio hits are just not there. Kids won't go out to buy this album because they will never hear it. Maybe next time around, The Fray will remember how to at least write catchy music that has no artistic merit.

Benjamin Huber Rodriguez is a Duncan College freshman. Albums and Abominations is a column featuring the latest album releases.

 

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