Frank Turner

duotone

Just started listening to him properly last week, not sure how I managed to miss him as he's right up my street.

Really enjoying his latest album "Positive Songs for Negative People" and "Tape Deck Heart"  (both on Spotify) 

What else can you recommend to a Frank Turner newbie?

failed_astronaut

Go way back and listen to Milliondead's first album. When they came out they were as genuinely exciting as At the drive-in.

Deijavoo

Gotta disagree about the ATDI comparison. I caught Your Codename is Milo support them and they blew Milliondead away. For me around the Relationship of Command record/tour ATDI were untouchable for people into that sort of thing.

I'm not saying Milliondead were bad at all, just nowhere near that good in my big book of what I deem as good, honest opinion, yadda yadda yadda....

I should give Frank a listen though, just missed him at Kendal Calling last year and I heard that he was supposed to be excellent. 

DulcetJones

He had a lot of airplay here in Canada with "Recovery" recently, great song, haven't heard anything else by him yet.

randomhandclaps

I truly cannot stand Frank Turner in any and every way.  I find the whole Eton educated wannabe liberal punk turned cheesy right wing political lecturer quite tragic.  Having heard and read interviews (although it probably shouldn't matter) I find his political views so abhorrent I can't bare to listen to him.  This isn't to have a dig at your tastes because that is the beauty of the plethora of musical choice available to us.

With that in mind I'd ask what aspect of it is you like about Frank Turner (I don't mean that as a challenge) to help with recommendations of other things worth checking?

Musically he reminds me of the acoustic stuff Noel did on the Oasis B-Sides.

Lyrically he's clearly going down the route of being today's Billy Bragg if Billy Bragg thought that the rich and the privileged were an ethnic minority. 

failed_astronaut

Deijavoo said:

Gotta disagree about the ATDI comparison. I caught Your Codename is Milo support them and they blew Milliondead away. For me around the Relationship of Command record/tour ATDI were untouchable for people into that sort of thing.

I'm not saying Milliondead were bad at all, just nowhere near that good in my big book of what I deem as good, honest opinion, yadda yadda yadda....

I should give Frank a listen though, just missed him at Kendal Calling last year and I heard that he was supposed to be excellent. 

For me there were two Milliondeads - the first album line-up with Cameron on guitar and the second album line-up with Ben (I think his name is). The first album is tight and aggressive and shows a band who've obviously worked at the their sound and arrangements, the second is over-long and a miss-mash of raging hardcore and boring attempts at anthemic post-rock. The first line-up had it's limitations and the second should have taken a bit longer on the record, but I think Turner was done with the whole thing by that point anyway.

I never got to see At the Drive-In live but they remain one of my favourite bands. Wis'd you for that

stimpsonslostson

randomhandclaps said:

I truly cannot stand Frank Turner in any and every way.  I find the whole Eton educated wannabe liberal punk turned cheesy right wing political lecturer quite tragic.  Having heard and read interviews (although it probably shouldn't matter) I find his political views so abhorrent I can't bare to listen to him.  This isn't to have a dig at your tastes because that is the beauty of the plethora of musical choice available to us.

With that in mind I'd ask what aspect of it is you like about Frank Turner (I don't mean that as a challenge) to help with recommendations of other things worth checking?

Musically he reminds me of the acoustic stuff Noel did on the Oasis B-Sides.

Lyrically he's clearly going down the route of being today's Billy Bragg if Billy Bragg thought that the rich and the privileged were an ethnic minority. 

This isn't an uncommon point of view.

I've been a fan of Frank's since the "Million Dead era", (the first time I saw him solo there were 12 people in the crowd!) but still cringe at some of his more political outbursts. 

He also has a strange habit of apparently writing/recording songs in keys he struggles to sing in- MrsLostSon finds him irritating for that reason.

Overall I like him and his music, but I confess to preferring Chuck Ragan (of Hot Water Music fame who appears to be following a similar career path)- hardcore vocalist turned custodian of modern folk rock.

BloodEagle

ATDI live were something else - I saw them in Leeds in about 2000 - blew my mind. I literally hate hate hate Frank Turner with a passion and loathe the way he tries to piggy back on punk/hc cred while basically sounding like ed sheeran. Was never even remotely interested in Million Dead as they were pretty wimpy sounding even then

EricTheWeary

I'm not particularly familiar but I have heard him and instantly think Billy Bragg; based on the above they may well be politically poles apart but Frank could easily have a side line in doing a Billy Bragg ( I sat next to him on a bench at a union rally - claim to fame!) tribute act. 

duotone

randomhandclaps said:

With that in mind I'd ask what aspect of it is you like about Frank Turner (I don't mean that as a challenge) to help with recommendations of other things worth checking?

I like the guitar playing, songwriting and really like his vocals.  

Favourite tracks are tell tale signs, recovery & opening act of spring.

blueskunk

Franks a cool guy

d8m

His book is also worth a read to, never realised how hard he had worked to get where he is!

stimpsonslostson

blueskunk said:

Franks a cool guy

This is true. At the early shows he always ran his own merch stand and was always lovely, friendly & good for a chat before his set. He bought my brother and I a pint at a show because he remembered chatting to us at one of his very first solo shows.