Review Summary: Going nowhere...
Frank Turner just seems like a good dude. If you’ve seen him in concert or met him in person, his bright and shining smile just seems to emit kindness. His songs, for the most part, are no different. While on every album, there are a few (or, if we’re to go back to
Love, Ire & Song, much more than a few) sad songs about heartbreak and loss, Frank Turner has always been the kind of artist to write songs that make you want to dance and sing and smile and be happy. So, when Frank Turner announced that his next album was titled
Be More Kind, especially coming off of the only-somewhat-aptly named
Positive Songs for Negative People, it seemed like the most Frank Turner-album Frank Turner could produce. However, just like the tired, tried times Turner sings of throughout most the album,
Be More Kind is tough to get through.
While I don’t expect much from a Frank Turner album these days (I came into his music late, just as
England Keep My Bones dropped, and have never been impressed by anything more than
Love, Ire, & Song), it’s difficult to find things that are actually enjoyable from his latest. Songs like “1933” and “Brave Face” feel and sound like Frank Turner songs should, with catchy lyrics, strong stories, and decent instrumentals and production behind them. However, it’s difficult to sing praise for these small parts while the rest of the album suffers from exactly the opposite.
In an album riddled with try-hard ballads and wannabe bangers, Turner couldn’t sound more bored by what he’s singing or what he’s singing over. Tracks like “Don’t Worry” and “There She Is”, whether it’s in Turner’s delivery or lack of enthusiasm, fall flatter than the back-half of the album, which is nearly so forgettable, it’s difficult to even comment on what it adds or takes away from the album. “Make America Great Again” has lyrics that wouldn’t sound out of place at a high schooler’s first poetry slam, while “21st Century Survival Blues” packs so little of a punch, it’s difficult to even seperate it from the ludicrous amount of post-apocalypse survival songs released in 2018. If the world is actually ending, Frank Turner seems like he couldn’t really be bothered. Plus, the line “You can’t trust kindness” seems like a weird lyrical decision considering the album’s thesis.
“Blackout” wants to stand out among the muddled mess, with an introduction sounds like it’s leading somewhere, but trips and stumbles with a chorus that sounds straight out of a Neighborhoods-era Blink-182 song. To add to the lazy songwriting found throughout, each track has questionable, bordering on awful production, often sounding like something you’d find in the background of a child’s toothpaste commercial (I’m looking at you, “Little Changes”).
Be More Kind is, as it’s cover art suggests, a thrown-together, mess of an album. While kindness is an idea that has permeated Turner’s music from day one, acting as its foundation and building blocks, it’s when he’s trying to play into that ideology that he topples.
