Puzzling he didn't have Esme Patterson reprise her part on Silent Key. Song didn't do much for me until that last part though. "The Death of Dora Hand" is borderline annoying to me and "Rescue Annie" is a big head scratcher lyrically. "Graveyard" through "Kassiani" is my favorite stretch of the album for sure. After all is said and done I think I'll still prefer BMK over this.
I definitely prefer BMK over this. At least that album sounds okay. The snare drum on this one is flat as shit
I definitely don’t hate this as much as most of you. It’s definitely at or near the bottom of his discography, but I don’t think it’s horrible. With that being said, Rescue Annie is not good on many levels.
Frank writing from a lot of different perspectives on this record, so it made think it was the guy who designed the life saving practice device or a lifeguard kid. I mean he wrote/sang from the perspective of a deceased astronaut, and a little kid hearing he last dying message. Since he is engaged or married, and doesn’t have a habit of writing creepy lyrics about young girls, I’m gonna just assume it seemed clearer lyrically than it’s being taken by people.
This is where I am at. I think there was a solid EP's worth of good material here. I think this is a step up from Be More Kind though. Everything about that album is boring and uninspired. At least this album grew out of an interesting concept, misguided though it may have been. Musically I like what he is doing here much moreso than Be More Kind.
I’m still a fan of a portion of BMK. I live portions on NML. I just want a more personal record, where Frank just kind of gives everyone the middle finger and does what he wants.
I’m finally getting around to listening to this. Overall: yeah no. What I hated about BMK was it lacked that trademark Frank Turner energy. We somehow ... got worse? The Graveyard Outcast Dead & Jinny Bingham’s Ghost might get a revisit here and there. I need this era of Frank Turner to go away and forgot 2018 & 2019 ever happened. There’s just so much good music being released that makes this mediocre album seem even worse.
I’m sure you can get this by viewing his Twitter feed if he reads reactions to the album lol. But yeah, very down for him to write more personal. I haven’t read his newest book but my girlfriend did and she mentioned how he literally writes in the book something along the lines of: “I’m no good at writing songs about other people. I’m only good at writing from my own personal experiences.”
He’s a good interview, but I get the sense his twitter back and Firth’s aren’t always productive. Also, twitter is often unproductive. Songs from Love, England and Tape Deck feel more personal.
Think it’s an England thing. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve heard british news reports where they say something along the lines “first responders delivered the kiss of life” EDIT: Found this through a quick search: the kiss of life Artificial respiration, that is, the blowing into the mouth of a person who has stopped breathing so as to force air in andout of their lungs. Primarily heard in UK, Australia.
Thank you for posting this. Hopefully this adds some clarity for those trying to make out to be something weird.
I'm from Australia and assumed 'Kiss of Life' was generally known worldwide as another way of saying CPR lol. I can imagine if it's the first time you've heard it would seem bad, but the phrase is not uncommon down here.
This album is actually growing on me. I listened to it again today, and a lot of the songs improved for me a pretty good amount, with the exception of the 3-song stretch of "A Perfect Wife" - "Silent Key" - "Eye of the Day". I don't really enjoy any of those songs, particularly the new "Silent Key". Musically I suppose it is alright, especially towards the end, but his voice sounds pretty bad throughout and absolutely atrocious in a few parts. The other two are just really boring and dull. "Rosemary Jane" grew on me in a huge way, and I actually like the song a lot now.
This album is bizarre, Frank doesn't even sound like he is excited to be recording this album, he sounds... bored? Musically it's just weird, and not in a good way. This whole thing is just weird, I don't think it achieved what he wanted in any way unfortunately
I like it more than I expected to. I like about half of it. Clearly, the songs that veer the hardest into Wikipedia-ish are the worst ones. I need to hear it a few more times. It's still odd to me that during the Trump Era, we haven't gotten an "Angry Frank" album - maybe he just doesn't have the fire anymore. The last 2 albums are pretty consistently slower/mid tempo outside of 1933 and most of this new album is very folky.
I’m pretty sure most of this album was written before Be More Kind, or at the very least along side of it, so I would consider it all the same era. He was playing some of these songs as far back as early 2016. I definitely hope for a little more fire with whatever comes next, so hopefully he got whatever it is out of his system with these. I’m happy with about an album’s worth out of the two combined.
This album just sounds like shit to me. Like, the songs are bad, so that's an issue, but it's also just super dull musically and has no color or character from a sonic perspective. I really can't find anything positive to say about it.