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Track List
01) Hold My Hand
02) Love Don't Die
03) Give It Away
04) Closer to Me
05) Hurricane
06) Keep On Wanting
07) Our Last Days
08) Break Your Plans
09) Wherever This Goes
10) Shadow and a Dancer
11) Same as You
01) Hold My Hand
02) Love Don't Die
03) Give It Away
04) Closer to Me
05) Hurricane
06) Keep On Wanting
07) Our Last Days
08) Break Your Plans
09) Wherever This Goes
10) Shadow and a Dancer
11) Same as You
3:41
3:03
3:21
2:47
3:48
4:41
3:39
3:47
3:38
4:48
5:06
Data Complete
70%
Total Rating
70%Total Rating
(0 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2014
Alternative Rock
Reflective
Rock/Pop
---
Medium
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Helios is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band The Fray. It was released on February 25, 2014 by Epic Records. The Fray's third album, Scars and Stories, was released in February 2012. In an October 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, frontman Isaac Slade said that the band would be starting work on their fourth album in 2013, aiming to release it around Christmas 2013. On June 4, 2013, the band announced that they had begun recording their fourth album. The album was made available for pre-order on iTunes on November 25, 2013, and was scheduled to be released on January 14, 2014, However, the release date had been pushed back and the album premiered on February 25, 2014. The album's lead single "Love Don't Die" was released on October 21, 2013. It was released to radio on October 22, 2013. On May 9, 2014, The band announced on their Twitter page that the second single of the album will be "Break Your Plans".
User Album Review
The Fray are occasionally a painfully earnest bunch. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. What Helios does prove quite admirably is that they still have a knack for turning that quality into uplifting not-quite-Coldplay pop rock. This quality is sharpened throughout with just a bit of edge to keep things from descending into schmaltz.
This alchemy opens the album well with the echoing piano that introduces "Hold My Hand". Things don’t stay subdued for very long, and by the 1:08 mark the piano is right back at the front, albeit with an urgent, layered beat that is classic Fray sound to the core. They take next track "Give It Away" in a direction that is very atypical for this band. Album after album have seen them dabble in balladry with solid rock chops. That’s what makes "Give It Away" so strange. Is it a Maroon 5-aping stomper? Is it a light-funk jam? It is those things and more, and yet lyrically it’s still a Fray song by the numbers. Once again, nothing particularly wrong with that. And truly, it is nice to see a bit of variation from the classic formula.
The snippets of sounds on this album that threaten to sound too much like their peers in the music industry occasionally do them a disservice. "Hurricane" has a musical structure that sounds just a bit too close to Coldplay if it were blended with a bit of Matchbox 20 styled rawness. Meanwhile, "Keep on wanting" treads dangerously close to U2 territory. Whether these particular sounds are a good or bad thing to emulate is all in the opinion of the listener. But whichever way the listener might lean on that subject, it doesn’t play to the Fray’s strengths when these similarities are too glaring.
Speaking of things that the Fray is all too well known for is as easy as listening to "Wherever This Goes". It is a song made for closing your eyes and imagine the romantic comedy it will be featured in. Whether as a plaintive send-off over the closing credits or inserted into a pivotal scene within the movie, the image is clear. Not that they always miss the mark with songs like this. As much as "How to Save a Life" was overexposed, when it was used effectively (say as how it was used when included on an episode of Scrubs) that particular Fray song worked, and it worked well.
Album closer "Same as You" tries to branch out a bit. The guitars are still there, but largely tuned down to let an almost trip-hop sounding beat provide the backdrop. The lyrics are still classic Fray (again), but it feels too close to home. They start to take a bit of a risk, but slide right back into their comfort zone, and it still sounds like a typical Fray song even if it isn’t quite rocking along the way a typical Fray song would.
The bottom line is that the Fray is too comfortable doing what it does. This comfort results in pleasant pop rock with accessible lyrics that are easy to digest. The disappointing thing is how slight moments of innovation appear for fleeting seconds only, then disappear into the ether. It suggests a band that is capable of so much more, if only it wanted to try.
SOURCE: https://www.popmatters.com/178753-the-fray-helios-2495690906.html
External Album Reviews
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User Comments
Available in:
Helios is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band The Fray. It was released on February 25, 2014 by Epic Records. The Fray's third album, Scars and Stories, was released in February 2012. In an October 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, frontman Isaac Slade said that the band would be starting work on their fourth album in 2013, aiming to release it around Christmas 2013. On June 4, 2013, the band announced that they had begun recording their fourth album. The album was made available for pre-order on iTunes on November 25, 2013, and was scheduled to be released on January 14, 2014, However, the release date had been pushed back and the album premiered on February 25, 2014. The album's lead single "Love Don't Die" was released on October 21, 2013. It was released to radio on October 22, 2013. On May 9, 2014, The band announced on their Twitter page that the second single of the album will be "Break Your Plans".
User Album Review
The Fray are occasionally a painfully earnest bunch. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. What Helios does prove quite admirably is that they still have a knack for turning that quality into uplifting not-quite-Coldplay pop rock. This quality is sharpened throughout with just a bit of edge to keep things from descending into schmaltz.
This alchemy opens the album well with the echoing piano that introduces "Hold My Hand". Things don’t stay subdued for very long, and by the 1:08 mark the piano is right back at the front, albeit with an urgent, layered beat that is classic Fray sound to the core. They take next track "Give It Away" in a direction that is very atypical for this band. Album after album have seen them dabble in balladry with solid rock chops. That’s what makes "Give It Away" so strange. Is it a Maroon 5-aping stomper? Is it a light-funk jam? It is those things and more, and yet lyrically it’s still a Fray song by the numbers. Once again, nothing particularly wrong with that. And truly, it is nice to see a bit of variation from the classic formula.
The snippets of sounds on this album that threaten to sound too much like their peers in the music industry occasionally do them a disservice. "Hurricane" has a musical structure that sounds just a bit too close to Coldplay if it were blended with a bit of Matchbox 20 styled rawness. Meanwhile, "Keep on wanting" treads dangerously close to U2 territory. Whether these particular sounds are a good or bad thing to emulate is all in the opinion of the listener. But whichever way the listener might lean on that subject, it doesn’t play to the Fray’s strengths when these similarities are too glaring.
Speaking of things that the Fray is all too well known for is as easy as listening to "Wherever This Goes". It is a song made for closing your eyes and imagine the romantic comedy it will be featured in. Whether as a plaintive send-off over the closing credits or inserted into a pivotal scene within the movie, the image is clear. Not that they always miss the mark with songs like this. As much as "How to Save a Life" was overexposed, when it was used effectively (say as how it was used when included on an episode of Scrubs) that particular Fray song worked, and it worked well.
Album closer "Same as You" tries to branch out a bit. The guitars are still there, but largely tuned down to let an almost trip-hop sounding beat provide the backdrop. The lyrics are still classic Fray (again), but it feels too close to home. They start to take a bit of a risk, but slide right back into their comfort zone, and it still sounds like a typical Fray song even if it isn’t quite rocking along the way a typical Fray song would.
The bottom line is that the Fray is too comfortable doing what it does. This comfort results in pleasant pop rock with accessible lyrics that are easy to digest. The disappointing thing is how slight moments of innovation appear for fleeting seconds only, then disappear into the ether. It suggests a band that is capable of so much more, if only it wanted to try.
SOURCE: https://www.popmatters.com/178753-the-fray-helios-2495690906.html
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