Kanye West gave the cover of “Heartless” by the blandly ambitious Denver outfit The Fray his tacit endorsement by linking to it from his blog, but it is something of a mess, with lead vocalist Isaac Slade blaaating all over an instrumental accompaniment that seems to be beamed in from a different galaxy. For some reason, though, I suspect that were this track not labeled with The Fray’s name, the blogs would be all over it and the “seriousness” it adds to the song. [kanYe West: Blog]
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I always feel like The Fray are unfairly dismissed by the “Blah-go-sphere” while other faceless, bland, white guy rock (The Shins, Peter Bjorn & John) gets a pass for no good reason. Am I the only one who feels this way?
@2ironic4u: Haha, that’s why a friend and I were wondering if we should relabel this track with some innocuous band name and send it around to the less credulous types out there…
@Maura Johnston: Not a bad idea.
This is hilarious…I live in Denver (where they’re from) and it’s amazing how much people hate on them–kinda crazy, these dudes have busted their a$$es for years and instead of going out after shows partying with groupies, they went home/to church to write more music…it goes back to the whole “Rock and Roll Lifestyle” bull$hit…nobody wants to give credit to anyone whose made it….
Is it selling out? Or selling out every seat in the house?
I actually caught these guys doing “Single Ladies” at a show here recently–I know it’s on youtube, and totally worth some work-internet-trolling.
@sambamalicious: but they’re just not good at all.
am I the only person who (a) really dislikes Kanye’s “Heartless” and (b) actually like this?
Kanye’s track is just so bleh, so mediocre, and every time I hear it it just sounds like an unfinished demo to me. How did it end up on the album in its current form? It just…sucks.
This version isn’t fantastic, but I actually like the instrumental/background vocal accompaniment. And I think his voice sounds alright too, surprisingly. (No comment on their other music.)
I know it’s massively uncool, but I like this band.
I love the covers they’ve performed on Live Lounge, which have a charming insouciance while respecting the often absurd source material.
I’m not in love with this band, but there are bands I hate far more.
This cover is pretty good not great. Sadly, that makes it better than most of their new album
@sambamalicious: they write their mu$ic at church?
@Maura Johnston: Perhaps you mean more credulous, credulous being a synonym of gullible and naive.
@MhS: yes, i do. thank you!
@Maura Johnston: You’re welcome
I confess to liking this too. If the Fray sounded like this more often I’d find them more interesting.
I actually liked “Over My Head,” their first single — bland but a good melody. But I got off the bus on the Gray’s Anatomy song, which was like a third-rate smudgy Xerox of the first single yet somehow (thanks to TV exposure) became infinitely more popular.
Good Morning AL:
Ha, yeah they’re church goers too…like, really devout, but not in the creepy-Palin way. Just a sense of faith that they’re proud of…but hey it seems to be working.