Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Turner, Frank
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 2013
Length: 50:20
Rating: 4/5
Frank Turner is an interesting rascal. After he left the post-hardcore band Million Dead and went solo in 2005, stepping out as a singer-songwriter who blended elements of his punk past with the folk tradition of the British Isles, his popularity started growing exponentially. Clearly, bringing together two otherwise clearly separate genre worlds is a winning formula these days, one that hooks fans of Frank’s punk roots, which melt into hardcore and even pop undercurrents, while also pulling them toward the unbridled, party-ready sweep of British folk melody. So it’s no wonder Turner’s teamed up for joint tours with beloved folk punk »oarsmen« Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys.
The moment that sent Turner’s career rocketing upward was the »Anglophile«, patriotic predecessor to the new album, »England Keep My Bones« (2011). With it, Turner visibly shook up the top of the current UK album charts and sold more than 100,000 copies. His solo gig at Wembley Stadium just confirms that this artist had been catapulted into the league of commercial success. The new record is his fifth, and it’s fair to say »Tape Deck Heart« is a whole new story in terms of confession. It’s a deeply personal record on which Turner polished his organic acoustic arrangement style even further. He clearly gets that the power of a poem’s message, delivered in an emotionally relived vocal performance, gets more intense and deeper the more gently you bend the accompaniment to a truly organic color palette of sonic landscape. Of course, that’s nothing new for Turner when it comes to his past work, but it’s not hard to feel that this time he built on the density of that organic sonic landscape in an especially cunning and deep way. Above all to magnify the emotional state of the artist at hand.
The lion’s share of this record’s remarkably layered sonic flavor, the fruit of Turner having grown and matured another notch as a singer-songwriter and musician, goes to the fine-tuned, perfectionist ear of producer Rich Costey. The compactness of the otherwise concise arrangement starting point is held together like magic glue by an extraordinary density of sonically cunning contrasts between the individual building blocks that make up the whole. Turner sang as many as several dozen vocal lines for one and the same song. The use of a colorful palette of keyboards with a retro sound also gives the record a certain nostalgic touch. Despite the fact that this is Turner’s first album recorded in the US, you can’t feel it at all. It keeps that traditional island sound!
The average American »brain« when it comes to perceiving music would slap a »Parental Advisory« sticker on this album without hesitation. Frank Turner just isn’t a guy who knows how, or wants, to wrap his life experiences in juicy metaphors. Turner is a direct deliverer of messages. In spiked language. Any frills are superfluous and unnecessary. But since Turner is a typical islander, it’s no surprise that all this directness comes wrapped in typical island black sarcasm. At the same time, through all of it, Turner keeps the ending open. Or rather, he leaves room for everything in life to end happily.
The punk rock moment that calls for a total switch-off and party mode, in Four Simple Words and Polaroid Picture, coaxes out some Foo Fighters adrenaline, even though the two songs are very different as compositions. The first is wound up in proper punk fashion, while the second has an equal measure of melancholic introspection woven in.
Turner is a one-of-a-kind interpreter. He relives everything as much as he can, and the songs ride on reality through that deeply lived delivery of emotion. The Fisher King Blues is especially moving in its delicate handling of the verses, while, thanks to those same qualities of Turner’s exceptional interpretation, in Anymore his vocal alone is actually enough, in an almost »a capella« setup. The acoustics are completely muted in the accompaniment and barely audible.
With »Tape Deck Heart« Turner has delivered an extremely lovely and colorful record with trendy, attractive characteristics, merging folk elements typical of the British Isles, firmly pinned to which is an alternative rock moment that brings a tangible rock vibe. The album rides on organic feel and excellent sound, the fruit of top-notch production and sonic separation of the arrangements. The record closes with the tender, balladic and yet still »Anglo-revivalist« Broken Piano, marked by a mix of anthemic bliss – solemnity – and that unmistakable touch of anxiety and melancholy that only artists from the British Isles seem to have. The song deepens the confessional, artistic reach of Frank Turner’s body of work. The album is also special because its confessional depth keeps growing over a good 50 minutes. That initial banality, even anger and feeling of having been personally cheated, gradually fades, replaced by a positive thought of defiance and sticking to your own path. This is an album on which a »lost soul finds itself again« and, after a »shipwreck«, sets a new meaning in life that it can follow with purpose and grow again, as an individual. You’ll be able to chew on this album for a long time and keep discovering its beauties and quirks! As a proper singer-songwriter album should be. Parallels with the work of Ryan Adams are possible.
»Tape Deck Heart« is an album born out of a cascade of bitter life experiences for Frank Turner, which the man takes on with an open heart, as lessons, announcing that there’s no obstacle a positive faith couldn’t always overcome. It’s not hard to conclude that Frank Turner has put out the most sonically and arrangement-wise defined, mature album of his career so far. The same goes for his poetry, whose openly personal confessions hit the listener with real sincerity in places.
Lineup
Frank Turner – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Ben Lloyd – guitar, backing vocals, “šundr” and drums on track no. 12
Tarrant Anderson – bass guitar, backing vocals, drums on track no. 12
Matt Nasir – piano, keyboards, mandolin, xylophone, backing vocals, drums on track no. 12
Nigel Powell – drums, percussion, tape recorder, backing vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Rich Costey – guitar on tracks no. 1 and 9, backing vocals on track no. 7
Elle King – banjo on track no. 3
John Hill – “soundscapes” on track no. 3
Chris Trovero – backing vocals on track no. 7
Scott Keys – backing vocals on track no. 7
Deena Keys – backing vocals on track no. 7
Samantha Keys – backing vocals on track no. 7
Chris Kasych – backing vocals on track no. 7
Ben Hallett – backing vocals on track no. 7
Production
Rich Costey
Tracklist
1. Recovery (3:28)
2. Losing Days (3:32)
3. The Way I Tend To Be (3:41)
4. Plain Sailing Weather (4:01)
5. Good & Gone (3:50)
6. Tell Tale Signs (4:12)
7. Four Simple Words (4:56)
8. Polaroid Picture (3:43)
9. The Fisher King Blues (5:00)
10. Anymore (3:09)
11. Oh Brother (4:18)
12. Broken Piano (5:30)
