After the break up with
Million Dead, the former leader of the hardcore band Frank Turner went on a trip across the US searching for an inspiration for his future career.
This 5-track EP is fundamental in order to get to know a little better Turner’s background and history.
Born in a wealthy family, he started enjoying music genres such as metal and punk and began to hate the “aristocrat” environment he used to live in. Plus, the discover of his father double life, who had been having a long-standing relationship with another woman for years, definitely changed his life.
Campfire Punkrock is the step before his folk-oriented turning point
Sleep is for the week, his first solo LP, and even if it is less intense, it is an interesting foretaste of his so far brilliant solo career.
The EP starts off with
Nashville Tennessee, a catchy ballad which describes his “spiritual” journey on his own in America meditating upon his past, but also planning to start over again with a new band.
And if I knew anybody who played pedal steel guitar,
I'd get them in my band and then my band would get real far,
But I was raised in middle England, and not in Nashville Tennessee,
And the only person in my band is me.
The arrangement is simple and the main instrument that prevails on all the other ones is his acoustic guitar: not only in this song but throughout the five tracks.
Thatcher ***ed The Kids is probably one of the best songs he has ever written, it perfectly reflects his early anarchic tendencies, which apparently nowadays have changed since he stated a couple of years later that he would not perform it anymore on stage.
Anyway, the lyrics are rather explicit and angry and they condemn the education system and the reforms that killed the welfare state in the 1980s. The song reaches its climax when the bridge bursts out:
You've got a generation raised on the welfare state,
Enjoyed all its benefits and did just great,
But as soon as they were settled as the richest of the rich,
They kicked away the ladder, told the rest of us that life's a bitch.
The third song,
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The One Of Me, can be considered a sort of reprise of the first one as for the theme of escaping from one’s home town, looking for something new. The rhythm is quick and the song is somewhat sarcastic, but really enjoyable.
Casanova Lament is on the other hand sad but still mantains a quick rhythm, while the one of the last song,
I Really Don't Care What You Did On Your Gap Year, is much slower. The theme of these two songs is love and the melody of the former seems the one that would be used for the opening track of his debut album (
The Real Damage), but simply arranged with only an acoustic guitar.
Family, travels and love are all themes that we can find throughout Frank Turner’s discography: this is why I find
Campfire Punkrock a solid start but also a tasty anticipation of his following works, which are of course better written and organised thank to the support of The Sleeping Souls, his current backing band.
Recommended Tracks
Nashville Tennessee
Thatcher ***ed The Kids
3.7/5
