There have been worse renditions of "The Star Spangled Banner" than the one The Fray performed before Monday night's national championship but they usually involve bad singers and forgotten lyrics. By that measure, The Fray was acceptable prior to the Kansas-Kentucky title game. Lead singer Issac Slade has a fine voice and knew all the words to the song. That's where the praise ends.
The Denver rock band tried to rework the 198-year-old song into a modern hipster version and failed in every respect. Finger-picking mood guitar, emo vocals and a guy doing his best impersonation of a Civil War dummer boy make not for a fine anthem. If you weren't listening to the lyrics, you'd have never known the band was singing our national anthem.
Reaction was almost universally negative on Twitter. Folks jokingly accused the band of ruining the reputation of the United States, retroactively losing us World War II and causing an awful national title game.
People have always had a problem with reworked versions of the national anthem. I thought it was pretty good. There's nothing wrong with putting your own spin on it.
People have always had a problem with reworked versions of the national anthem. I thought it was pretty good. There's nothing wrong with putting your own spin on it.
Agreed. This is exactly what I would expect a Fray version of the Anthem to sound like
I live in Florida. I'm coming after myself too sis. I'm goin' down with it
Btw, who else did I come after? I've been really neutral towards everyone's views.
I love how Kelly Clarkson was trending after the Fray's performance Their rendition was a little...out there. I would have preferred the standard instrumentals tbh
If they were going to rework it, they should've done better.