Sometimes playing it safe is a good thing.

You don’t have to worry about stepping on toes and you can coast along.

But playing it safe doesn’t give you room to grow, try new things, experiment a little.

And after two very similar albums, The Fray decided to play it safe. Again. “Scars & Stories,” the third offering of the Colorado version of Coldplay, sounds a bit on the uninspired side. The band pours all of their energy into two songs out of 12 and leave the rest to fend for themselves.

Uncharacteristically, they opt out of their piano-driven formula for a more edgy but kind of dull rock.

Fans of their last album will enjoy “Heartbeat,” which is probably a leftover from that era’s songwriting sessions, as it sounds similar to “You Found Me” minus the piano.  Everything else seems to blend together afterwards until we get to “Rainy Zurich,” which is begging to be released as single No. 2.

The album is enjoyable to an extent, but maybe The Fray should re-introduce the piano into its tunes. It at least makes them more interesting to listen to.