Well I received this track in my inbox this morning and I’m not entirely sure what I think of it. On one hand I really liked the Kanye original because at points during the song his voice would break down like he was literally reliving the heartbreak. On the other hand I didn’t really love the Kanye original because of the fact that, at least in my mind, Kanye should stick to what he does best, that being gallivanting around as a rap master, and leave the singing to the pretty boys. And speaking of pretty boys, here we have The Fray, a band that actually made their name by singing, covering Heartless. I wanted really badly for this to be a superb cover. I wanted it to drip with emotion and have a rough and heartbroken feel. The only problem is that it doesn’t.
mp3 : The Fray - Heartless (Kanye West Cover)
What you will find here is smooth vocals, instrumentation, and generally a good cover song. What you will not find here, at all, is any reason to think that this is better than the original.
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Sometimes blogging can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing. Let me start with the blesssings. I get a load of free music, usually more than I have time to listen to. I also, on the rare occaision, receive some free tickets to see certain artists play live. The curse comes into play when you see the sheer volume of music I receive. Even when I love a band I usually only have them in rotation for a few months before they’re drowned out by the latest album from the next twenty great bands everyone simply must listen to. Sometimes old favorites get lost in this mish mash of new music.
Fortunately for the music world this past weekend my brother got married. I did my duties as the best man and gave a wonderful toast {or so I thought}. The reason this affects this blog is simple. During part of the weekend I had the pleasure of riding along in my mom’s minivan. She listens, almost exclusively, to contemporary christian radio and occaisionally there’s an oldies station or two that gets in on the rotation. Most of the time I cringe simply at the mention of the modern mainstream christian music scence, but on this fateful day they played a song to which I have listened countless times and I sing along with regardless as to who’s listening.
mp3 : The Fray - How To Save A Life
Hearing this song again brought back a flood of memories, mostly associated with my final year of university and a trip I took to Mt. Everest, but it also made me curious. The Fray have been working on their new album for a ridiculous amount of time. Their last album, 2005’s How To Save A Life (amazon) (itunes), was insanely popular and yet here we are, three years later, and no followup. Their website claims they’re working on it now, Metacritic claims it’s supposed to be released this summer {exactly when is still up for grabs}, and their myspace doesn’t even show up on a quick google search {wake up PR folks}. So their next album allegedly will drop soon. Until then you can put this song on continual repeat and hope for the best.
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