Frank Turner - Love, Ire and Song
Rating
RIYL
Dustin KensrueChuck Ragan
Bily Bragg
Release Date
07/21/2009
Label
EpitaphTracklist
1. "I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous"2. "Reasons Not to Be an Idiot"
3. "Photosynthesis"
4. "Substitute"
5. "Better Half"
6. "Love Ire & Song"
7. "Imperfect Tense"
8. "To Take You Home"
9. "Long Live the Queen"
10. "A Love Worth Keeping"
11. "St Christopher Is Coming Home"
12. "Jet Lag"
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Although Europe has had Frank Turner’s incredible sophomore full-length Love, Ire, and Song since March 2008, Epitaph has signed the folkster and is releasing it in America in anticipation of his upcoming full-length. Those who didn’t have the means to obtain a copy of the album have been missing out on the best addition to the new former-punk-singer-who-now-sings-folk-and-country genre since Dustin Kensrue’s Please Come Home. The former Million Dead frontman (they were the UK’s answer to At the Drive-In) has crafted an album full of witty and hopeful folk rock gems that sound at home everywhere from a club to a front porch to a protest rally.
One of the first thing you notice when you listen to Love, Ire and Song is that it isn’t really doing anything new, and if anything it follows every folk and country standard like clockwork. While those looking for flash might be disappointed at first, a deeper listen will reveal an album that is more substance than style, and is one of the most solid and consistent albums in recent history. For example, the lead single “Photosynthesis” starts off with an upbeat guitar, a plodding country bass line and some raucous vocals, all of which would turn off the average scenester who claims to hate “country music”. But when you begin to pay attention, you begin to notice how infectious the melodies are, how inspiring the lyrics feel, and how you can’t help but want to sing and clap along. Every single song on the CD is like this. At first glance the songs may seem conventional, but they easily grab you and Frank Turner impresses you with his considerable musical skill.
Turner isn’t afraid to play around with genres either. All while staying within the realm of folk music, Love, Ire and Song has everything from jangly roots-rockers (“Reasons Not to Be an Idiot” “Imperfect Tense”) to folksy sing-alongs (“Photosynthesis” “St. Christopher is Coming Home”) to lovelorn ballads (“Jet Lag” “Better Half”). He often inserts flourishes subtle enough to pass you at first listen but eventually hit you and leave an impression, like the two and a half minute build up in the front of “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous”. Its subtle guitar feedback seethes underneath the surface acoustic work and eventually explodes in a moment that hits musical transcendence. Or “Long Live the Queen” (a relatively large hit in the UK), which just seems like another Counting Crows-ish acoustic rock jam, lyrically reveals itself to be a moving story about the death of a friend. By burying the melancholy lyrics under an upbeat song, Frank Turner creates a beautiful juxtaposition between the sadness of death and the responsibility of loved ones to move on. While his band is more than competent, the real musical highlight of Love, Ire, and Song is Frank Turner’s voice. His rich British baritone never sounds forced but bubbles over with such passion and weight that you can’t help but believe to what he is saying. Although his voice is often on the verge of cracking, he does it with such style and skill that it gives chills every time. If you can listen to “Jet Lag” and not feel like crying due to the power of his voice, you probably have no soul.
Although this album does have its songs about love and loss, like the so-sweet-its-almost-cheesy “To Take You Home” or the tearful piano ballad “Jet Lag”, a large majority of this album is about the disillusionment of aging. Frank Turner has reached a point in life where everyone around him is pressuring him to grow up and be an adult, which he equates with being “bored and unfulfilled”. “Photosynthesis” is a confessional piece where Turner admits that, “Maturity is a double edged sword… like ditching teenage fantasies means ditching all your dreams”. But instead of retreating into a boring life where you slave “50 years away on something that you hate”, he boldly proclaims in the chorus (with a gang of friends behind him) that he “won’t sit down, won’t shut up, most of all I won’t grow up”. While it may sound cheesy, it is presented with such gravitas and passion that it comes off less like a lame motivational speaker and more like an old friend giving you good advice. “Reasons Not to Be an Idiot” has a criminally catchy chorus that pokes fun at those who “got used to saying no to get up... and get outside”. But in the most stirring and hopeful example of Frank Turner’s refusal to let his age dictate his actions, the title track laments how “punk rock didn’t live up to what (he) thought it could be”, and how when he was young he was “crass enough to care”, but that he won’t “make the same mistakes again”. In a musical revelation, the song morphs into a march that rouses his “old friends to the streets”, so that maybe for a little while they can reclaim what it was like to be young and idealistic, even with the surety of failure. Musically, it is rousing and well constructed song, but more importantly,this is the sort of song that will inspire people to go out and do amazing things.
Love, Ire, and Song might seem to be nothing special to some, but Frank Turner has taken a familiar genre and given it a breadth and depth that is seldom heard. The consistency of his music, the wit and hopefulness of his lyrics, and the power of his voice show that Frank Turner truly is something special, and I am assured that we will hear even greater things from him in the future.
--Stephen Harris
Comments
Lehigh Valley, PA
This album is fantastic. "Photosynthesis" is such an awesome song, and the video is pretty rad as well. Good review Stephen.
San Jose, CA
Great review Stephen! I like your flow.
I love this album. I find it different from the other albums of its kind though, because it has an underlying pop-punky feel to it.
last.fm/user/thetsaiguy
Waterloo, Ontario
fuck this is raddd, it gives me chills.
Top Ten of 2009 http://www.decoymusic.com/users/3747/top_tens/2009
New Jersey
I really liked the first half of Sleep is For the Week and I loved Million Dead. I should listen to this guy more.
when i see it in your eyes
i just want to go blind
Oklahoma City, OK
I miss Million Dead
Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.
-Tom Waits in an interview with Tom Waits
Iowa City, IA
stumbled across Frank Turner in some junk email press releases, listening now to Love, Ire & Song and absolutely love it.... its fresh, but movingly similar to those singer-songwriters that matter... if you dig this, check out William Elliott Whitmore... Iowa's answer to this style/genre... needless to say, I'm excited for Mr. Turner's upcoming release this month!
Chris Kies
Associate Editor @ Premier Guitar Magazine
Contributor-Reviewer @ Decoy
chris@premierguitar.com
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