UTP Album Review: Frank Turner - Tape Deck Heart

For almost a decade, Frank Turner has made his name traveling the world, putting on full-throttle acoustic sing-alongs in basements, clubs, arenas, and huge festival stages. I've seen him a couple of times, and have always been amazed by the energy he brings, and that the crowd gives back. 

 

His fifth full-length, Tape Deck Heart (out on April 22), is a drastic change of pace compared to the past 7 or 8 years of what we're used to. I'd noticed this the last time I saw him, on his most recent US tour. He played 3-4 songs off the album, and they all seemed a bit slower compared to the rest of his set (which closed with a substantially up-tempo version of "Dan's Song"). With the exception of a few songs (mainly the lead single, "Recovery", "Four Simple Chords", and "Plain Sailing Weather"), this album is, for lack of a better word, slow. It's crossed the border of folk-punk and gone square into folk-rock.

What I love most about Tape Deck Heart is how much focus is put on his backing band, the Sleeping Souls. Turner had said in the past that when putting together a live band, he wanted a group of the tightest musicians he could find. The Sleeping Souls are close to a perfect fit for Frank as you could get. I might be a little biased because guitarist Ben Lloyd, like myself, is a Fender Jazzmaster man, but that's neither here nor there. Speaking of Lloyd, he plays a lot more mandolin on this album than on past albums, which is always a plus in my book.

This is an album full of songs and lyricism that are just as heartfelt and relatable as his past four albums. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a bad album. I think the only sour point I can really find is closing track "Broken Piano", which struggles to get going, just as Turner struggles to hit higher notes in the song's droning introduction.

Tape Deck Heart is full of very solid songs, but I just worry how gig-worthy they are. Can he rotate these songs into set-lists and perform them with the energy we all expect to see on-stage, or is this the start of an evolution in the fun time that is seeing Frank Turner live? The following months will show. He's touring the eastern half of the US this summer with The Architects and Beans on Toast. Go see what happens.

Pressing info:

CD available April 22nd in both regular and deluxe formats (with 6 bonus tracks), and LP (black or green). Released on Xtra Mile in the UK, Interscope everywhere else.