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Review Summary: I don't know what's going on anymore. There’s a part in one of the verses of 'There She Is' where Frank’s voice seems to break a bit. His smooth, comfortable intonation cracks a bit, implying that he feels what he’s singing to such a degree that he can’t keep in that bit of pure emotion, so he just lets it go.
This is essentially a microcosm of what makes an artist like Frank Turner so appealing. He’s never afraid to tell you how he feels, and he’s never been afraid to show that feeling with all the pomp and circumstance such grand emotion would call for. It’s 'Be More Kind'’s one saving grace, if it can be called that. It never feels like Turner forces anything, and he belts it all out with such conviction that one would be hard pressed to say that any of this is disingenuous.
But all the conviction in the world simply cannot save a *** album.
In a lot of ways, I feel what Frank feels here, and I think I feel it just as strongly. '1933', the album’s only moment worthy of any interest, serves as the anthem of the disenfranchised in Trump’s America. It’s bitter and angry, and it perfectly encapsulates the fear and desperation that so many feel in a time like this. It sounds like the world is falling to pieces, like people are rioting in the streets. A time capsule peering into the left leaning perspective of this era. It baffles me that, after this, Turner proceeds to *** around with trite adages that sound like something you’d hear from a motivational speaker, or at least something someone would retweet from said motivational speaker. So many of these songs are so repetitive and saccharine in their message that they all run together to the point that recalling much of anything about song directly after it ends proves a monumental task, and one I have little interest in undertaking.
The instrumentation only hurts the already irritating songwriting on display. Any rustic, folky instruments are all but gone, only reeling their head out of what feels like obligation. They’ve been replaced with the typical middling rock band set up, acoustic and electric guitars with no bite, drums that are there merely because without them, the songs would have absolutely zero driving force, and even some keyboard. None of these things are inherently bad, and a change in musical direction for Frank is far from unadvised from me, but a change would typically require something of note to be produced from it. There’s simply nothing memorable here, and that’s just as bad as being unpleasant or otherwise terrible.
I’m a massive Frank Turner fan. Love, Ire and Song is unquestionably one of my favorite albums of all time, and I could never undersell Positive Songs for Negative People, as it was one of the albums to prop me up in getting me through the first real heartbreak of my life. And I can get behind Frank’s message on this album. Of course I think we should be more kind to each other. Of course that’s the only way we could all come to some sort of agreement in these troubled times. But this album has absolutely no substance. It’s complete drivel lyrically, it’s musically vapid, and it’s entirely unmemorable.
It is an album in search of substance, of something important to say. And it can only come up short every time.
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Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off
correct rating for a terribly overvalued songwriter..
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oh my
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
I disagree with your last two sentences, and I wish you'd fleshed out that point a bit more (particularly about the album being in search of substance, which is really interesting), but otherwise very well-written review.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Dude peaked with England Keep My Bones and has been slowly regressing into self-parody since. This album isn't as bad as the review makes it out, but the flat-or-cheesy instrumentation and those vague motivational lyrics really make it hard to be impressed. "1933" is fine, the rest is bland, schmaltzy, or embarrassingly didactic.
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that comment seems very on-point
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Great review, not sure if I'm checking this one out anymore
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
I’m a massive Frank Turner fan. Love, Ire and Song is unquestionably one of my favorite albums of all time, and I could never undersell Positive Songs for Negative People [...] And I can get behind Frank’s message on this album. Of course I think we should be more kind to each other. Of course that’s the only way we could all come to some sort of agreement in these troubled times. But this album has absolutely no substance. It’s complete drivel lyrically, it’s musically vapid, and it’s entirely unmemorable. [2]
Great review. Pos.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
rating looks a touch harsh to me but can't quarrel with the sentiments expressed here
Make America Great Again is truly awful but I do enjoy a few of these songs
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
good review but I don't think this is so bad
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This dude is awful
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
He's pretty basic especially now. I don't know why but I've always been able to see past his flaws.
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I fucking haaaaate this guy for some reason
| | | Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off
He's earnest and likeable, but so is a puppy with Down syndrome..
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
one of my favourite artists personally, simple yet nuanced folky goodness that basically got me into music. I get the objections to his style though, cause it is undeniably on the nose and (I'm sure for some) sickeningly peppy, but he usually draws a surprising amount of nuance out of some very simple tricks. this aint a great example of that though...
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His earnest and likableness used to separate himself, and now I feel like those qualities have been melted down to bare bones commercial appeal.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
agreed, sadly
that being said, I think he had all the best intentions with this project, but the particular way in which his messages manifest themselves seem shallow and vapid in contrast to his earlier works, with the result that the style loses that spark it used to have
| | | Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off
“The pointless trouboudar returns to ruin your local pub”
“Correct rating for a terribly overvalued songwriter”
“He’s earnest and likeable, but so is a puppy with Down syndrome”
confirmed you want Frank Turner’s babies! 👶
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I think it's a combination of things, but he's been grinding away for years now, and while he's gained a great following it's not like he's achieved peak success as an artist. Dude is probably just getting by, and with all that said his music has probably hit the "eh fuck it I'll just make these new songs instead of investing my soul and emotion into something that will only be truly appreciated by a select few" and also the fact he's already done that.
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
hm true, I talked about that with Blush actually. I wouldn't be surprised if he's coasting a bit and just wanted to make a chill, happy sappy record. As much as I loved PSFNP, there was a similar lack of drive or urge to innovate on that record too, so its not surprising that this follows suit to a degree
| | | Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off
Atari, god, that baby's first words would be a sloggy Celtic folk song..
"Oh, I come from the lowlands, my mother is a prostitute, my father is a fish"
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