Tape Deck Heart (Album) - Frank Turner

I can say of all Frank Turner albums that I tend to enjoy about two thirds of their content. This latest one is no exception, and that is certainly not a criticism. There is more good than bad on this album – as has been the case with all his albums thus far – which is admirable for an artist who releases new material as frequently as Mr Turner. 

Opener ‘Recovery’ starts the album off strongly, juxtaposing the lyrical content of recovering from a break up, with a typically catchy and upbeat tune. I can’t help but indulge in a bit of immaturity whenever the line “And you know your life is heading in a questionable direction” comes in, and I can’t help but replace the following line with “When you’re just into your thirties, yet you can’t get an erection”! Joking aside though, it is one of the best tracks on the album, and a solid choice for the first single (please also check out my single review of the track).

This is followed by ‘Losing Days’ which a solid track, revolving around the theme of getting older and no longer being care-free and youthful. The inclusion of a mandolin prompted one reviewer to make comparisons to ‘Losing My Religion’ which I think is a little bit too much. The track is far more Hootie and the Blowfish than it is R.E.M., and if you don’t agree then listen to this track side by side with ‘Hannah Jane’ from “Cracked Rear View”. If this seems like a criticism, it is not intended to be, as I said the track is solid enough but I wouldn’t put it amongst my absolute favourite Frank Turner songs. 

The second single ‘The Way I Tend To Be’ is up next, and is a fine showcase for Frank’s song-writing. The break-up theme of the album is continued here, and done very well. Being an avid fan of Game of Thrones I misheard one of the lyrics as “you stood apart in my khalasar” as opposed to “calloused heart” the first time I heard the song.

After a solid opening three tracks, the album unfortunately loses me on the next three. I’m aware that these may be a lot of people’s favourites, but they really don’t work for me. Both ‘Plain Sailing Weather’ and ‘Good & Gone’ overuse the word “fuck” in a manner that just seems excessive, and lacks the satisfaction of a more effective deployment of the same word (such as ‘Love, Ire and Song’). It is something that irks me about Frank Turner sometimes. ‘Tell Tale Signs’ opening line of “God dammit Amy” is immediately jarring, and the rest of the song hasn’t really won me over, either.

Things then pick up again, and the bombastic, arena-filling choruses that are a staple of Frank Turner’s albums, make their presence felt on ‘Four Simple Words’. I wasn’t too keen on this track when I first heard it, but repeated listens make it hard to really dislike because Frank is clearly having a great time singing it. If I wanted to be really nitpicky, I could draw attention to the fact that Frank says “I wanna dance” far more often than he says “I want to dance”, which wouldn’t be much of an issue if the song title, and introduction drew so much attention to the fact that it’s four simple words, and not three. Not a major issue, just something I wanted to point out.

‘Polaroid Picture’ is a curiosity, as I have a fondness for songs centred around nostalgia, but the rockier edge to the choruses seems a bit gratuitous, not quite complimenting the subject matter. No matter though, as the next two tracks really show off Frank really getting it right. ‘The Fisher King Blues’ is my favourite track on the whole album, starting with a catchy repeated phrase on the guitar, and gradually building into a triumphant five-minute-long anthem, with a powerful refrain to close it out: “All you broken boys and girls/ With your tattered flags unfurled”. Then Frank proves that he is fully capable of understatement – which is something I’ve often wondered at – on the beautifully simple ‘Anymore’. There is no grand arrangement, or catchy stadium-filling chorus required on this short, sad, break-up themed song.

‘Oh Brother’ follows, and like ‘Polaroid Picture’ it is something of a mixed bag, as the lyrics tend to venture between being really good at certain points, but then clunky at others; the lyrics in the opening verse are structured really strangely, and in my opinion should have done with some additional fine-tuning before this track was taken into the studio. The album then rounds off with ‘Broken Piano’ which has a more ominous tone rumbling throughout, than previous album closers have had. This song takes its time to build, and it is not until after the three-minute-mark that Frank’s lonely voice is supported by a pounding drum-beat, and additional backing vocalists. 

“Tape Deck Heart” is a solid fifth album, containing several standout tracks, and venturing into some less-familiar territory, whilst also retaining a lot of what has made him so popular to begin with. I have my misgivings about certain tracks, but on the whole there is a lot that I like about the album. Frank Turner is clearly an artist who knows exactly what he’s doing, and is very good at it. I’m already looking forward to whatever is coming next, and considering the work-rate of this man, I may not have to wait for very long to find out what that will be.