Frank Turner - Be more Kind

*****

To be Frank, this is a great album 

Frank Turner has had quite a life to date, having attended Eton with Prince William and been the lead singer of hardcore punk band Million Dead he is now a Folk musician. Quite a life so far and the Folk career has been going pretty well too now into his seventh studio album, the last five of which have entered the UK top fourty albums. Considering that Folk is more of a niche scene than most, that’s pretty good going.  

His new album is ‘Be more Kind’ takes it title from a Clive James poem entitled ‘Leçons Des Ténèbres’ in which he wrote; “I should have been more kind. It is my fate. To find this out, but find it out too late.” This struck a cord with Frank Turner, in these days where there seems to be a lot of animosity and outright hatred in the world maybe it’s time to step back a moment and be a bit nicer.

The album opens with ‘Don’t Worry’ a track that takes you on a bit of journey from quite minimal acoustic number turning into a bit of a swirling instrumental by the end. ‘1933’ has a bit more of an upbeat feel, despite the slightly dark lyrics about how we may be repeating the mistakes of history “The world outside is burning with a brand new light, but it isn’t one that makes me feel warm” is certainly a lyric that makes you stop and think.

The title track ‘Be more Kind’ is back to the slower numbers, almost has a ballad like feel, it keeps up the politic feel of the album talking about more people needing to talk and having less walls, which I think he means both literally and figuratively. Most recent single ‘Make America great Again’ is a bit of a plea to Mr Trump one suggestion being “by making racists ashamed again” which is hard to argue with. Lyrics certainly are a big part of the album and it’s worth listening to and appreciate properly.

It seems to almost alternate between the slower and more upbeat numbers with ‘Brave Face’ being one of the latter. Previous single ‘Blackout’ being another one of the stand out tracks, though to be honest this an album of great tunes, none of the songs could be called a filler. It ends on quite a slow number of ‘Get it Right’ and with this whole album that is something Frank Turner certainly did.

Frank Turner is one of those acts I have always admired but never listened to as much as I should as it is a genre I am certainly a fan of with acts like Beans on Toast doing similar. I will certainly be rectifying that in the future and this record will be on repeat for a while. ‘Be More Kind' is  truly well crafted collection on songs that sum up some modern woes but with a few sensible solutions too, it’s a great album for music lovers and world leader alike.

Review by Jon Cooper 

Check Out! the Video for 'Make America great Again' Below...​