Frank Turner
Rock & Roll

Release Date: 2010 | Tracklist

Frank Turner is an extremely talented guy, there’s little doubt. He’s never been the best singer in the world, or even the room, generally speaking, but there was always a brilliant spark in his songs that just reeked of sincerity and heart. His skill on the guitar is average, yes, but lyrically he was so incisive it didn’t matter that the music was simple and occasionally a little shonky. Unfortunately, his third record, Poetry of the Deed, showed a worrying downturn in quality; one that came completely out of the blue after the stellar, Love, Ire & Song. It shifted units and put Turner into a new level of well-deserved popularity, but everything was just a shade duller than it had been before, and unmistakably weaker. Sadly, any hope that he would pull the nose up and fly high again have been dashed, because this new ep isn’t just dull, it’s completely rinsed of the character that once enriched the singer’s music. Where once there was a surprise waiting in every corner of every song, now there is a numb predictability that weighs each one down.

From the very start it’s obvious that there is something very, very wrong with the lyrics on display here, because instead of some decently-penned hook, the listener is instead treated to something that Anti-Flag would discard as laughable rubbish. How Turner ever thought the refrain ‘Hear Ye! Hear Ye!’ was anything other than utter, clichéd crap is unfathomable. Seeing him cheerfully blast it out in the music video to 'I Still Believe' is like watching an old friend’s smiling corpse piss all over itself. And even when the mood of the record turns sombre, like in ‘Rock & Roll Romance’, there is a distinct lack of wit and style in the lyrics, giving the song a childish tinge that it never escapes. It’s starting to sound like Frank Turner has stopped writing songs, and is now trying to write Frank Turner Songs – it’s just a shame he doesn’t realise that the direct connection he once had to something real and indefinable was everything that was great about his work. The average music is still there, but those heartfelt words are a distant, fading memory. May they rest in peace.

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3.5 great

Rank: #0 for 2010