Frank Turner
Love, Ire & Song


5.0
classic

Review

by EVedder27 USER (106 Reviews)
June 28th, 2010 | 171 replies


Release Date: 2008 | Tracklist

Review Summary: You'll live to dance another day/it's just now you'll have to dance, for the two of us/so stop looking so damn depressed/sing with all your heart/that the Queen is dead

To be completely honest, I don’t believe there is a time more uncertain than your early twenties. The awkward teenage stage seems as though it has long since past; leaving only a shadow of our former selves in the midst of what we imagined was a transitional stage. The autonomy of the college years is only a misleading segment that dissipates in the blink of an eye, as the real world looms ever so close. Those chief decisions are to be made: What am I going to do for the rest of my life? Is this really it? As if we are unwilling to make the next transition knowing that it will be a permanent one, as the chaos and irresponsible demeanor of the aforementioned college years become a fading memory. And thus enters Frank Turner’s Love, Ire & Song.

Frank Turner’s sophomore release is a perpetual depiction of our most pivotal life juncture; Turner’s discussion of growing pains, heartbreak, and lost love ones are demonstrated with flying colors through his lyricism. These factions are only secondary however, to the helpless feeling of our beliefs being dragged out from under us, as instituted in the title track. “And all the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young, are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs”. Turner’s perfectly written lyricism so adequately radiates from every strum of his acoustic and every one of his passionate belts in unswerving fashion; ceasing only when the piano fades in the ultimate seconds of “Jet Lag.” The intricately crafted mix of acoustic and electric guitars present the instrumentation as both heartwarming and jubilant when necessary, but are almost utilized as puppets for Turner’s true emotions. There is something unequivocally devastating about Love, Ire & Song, no matter how bright the music appears to be. Frank Turner’s 2008 release is a lucid illustration of a man struggling at the crossroads of his life, containing that astronomical level of ambiguity and reluctance to let go of what has been.



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user ratings (735)
4.2
excellent
other reviews of this album
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Comments:Add a Comment 
EVedder27
June 28th 2010


6088 Comments


album is perfect guys

Athom
Emeritus
June 28th 2010


17244 Comments


you son of a bitch. still gonna review this someday.

edit: have you seen him live yet?

SeaAnemone
June 28th 2010


21429 Comments


knew this was coming ; ) I gotta go but I promise to read later!

EVedder27
June 28th 2010


6088 Comments


I have not redsky, really really want to now though. You should still review this too, because I would really like to read your take.

SeaAnemone
June 28th 2010


21429 Comments


can we all review it? please?

EVedder27
June 28th 2010


6088 Comments


Eric when did you 5? Like now?!


appreciate it chambered

SeaAnemone
June 28th 2010


21429 Comments


yes, like now. it needed it. it started at a 4, but it's definitely a classic for me now.

Athom
Emeritus
June 28th 2010


17244 Comments


You need to. The smaller the venue, the better. I'll probably review this for my 100th. All these 5's are making me glad that even if it's a little late, people are starting to pay attention to this album.

AtavanHalen
June 29th 2010


17919 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

You've convinced me to check this out, but I really think you could have elaborated a lot more on the best songs on the record; maybe a few more lyrical examples?

foreverendeared
June 29th 2010


14720 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

you didn't talk about the music at all except "intricately crafted mix of acoustic and electric guitars...." and that's not much at all. Otherwise, I really like your first paragraph. Maybe that's just because I'm 23 and feel just what you describe.

ConsiderPhlebas
June 29th 2010


6157 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Better than my review for it and half the length

Athom
Emeritus
June 29th 2010


17244 Comments


Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal so it seems
And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams
All your friends and peers and family solomnly tell you you will
Have to grow up be an adult yeah be bored and unfulfilled
Oh when no ones yet explained to me exactly what's so great
About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate

When the evening casts it's shadows on the corners of my days
And I am old and I am settled in the place where I will stay
When my wandering meanderings have finally reached their end
Yeah whatever else maybe I will not forget my friends

Leave the mourning the to the morning
Yeah pain can be killed
With aspirin tablets and vitamin pills
But memories of hope, and glorious defeat
Are a little bit harder to beat

EVedder27
June 29th 2010


6088 Comments


Yeah, I get the comments on the lack of discussion on the music. I've been trying to cut down on my length lately, and my last real short review seemed to go really well. For this record though the music isn't nearly as important as the concept or the lyrics so that might explain why I didn't write so much about the music as well.

David, the lyrics chan posted are really great examples, also additionally:

"We call each other up, when we're messed up
And say we'll meet in the New Year
But it's perfectly clear we'll do no such thing"


EVedder27
June 29th 2010


6088 Comments


I find this album to be really incredible in that I continue to discover more and more about the lyrics that blow me away

Athom
Emeritus
June 29th 2010


17244 Comments


It's one of the few albums that I've found that I can play to death every day and it only gets better.
Chan you need to hurry up and 5 this.

Observer
Emeritus
June 29th 2010


9393 Comments


ive never heard of this

think it would be my thing, mike?

Jethro42
June 29th 2010


18274 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

omg I need this asap.

Ved you did it again!...It's always a pleasure to read your reviews.

You're getting better and better buddy. So professional. Pos'd of course.

EVedder27
June 29th 2010


6088 Comments


Can't say for sure Jared, but if you have a thing for songwriting at all I would say this is essential

SeaAnemone
June 29th 2010


21429 Comments


Well it was bad enough the feeling, and the first time it hit
When you realised your parents had let the world all go to shit
And that the values and ideals for which many had fought and died
Had been killed off in the committees and left to die by the wayside
But it was worse when we turned to the kids on the left
And got let down again by some poor excuse for protest
Yeah by idiot fucking hippies in 50 different factions
Who are locked inside some kind of 60's battle re-enactment
And I hung-up my banner in disgust and I head for the door

DiceMan
June 29th 2010


7066 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I liked this review despite it's not speaking of the music. I'm definitely going to download this, especially since you and I agree consistently on lyricism.



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