Be Less Cruel
I first discovered Mr. Francis Edward Turner 6 years and 3 albums ago when he played his 1,232nd live show at the Manning Bar in Sydney University on the 12th of May, 2012. At the time I knew absolutely nothing about him but a workmate of mine invited me to come along because one of his friends was a huge fan. Thank you Nathan Sentance.
Videos of some songs from that concert can be viewed online
His encore of Queen's Somebody to Love
and a duet he did with Jen Buxton
I was one of the unseen voices drunkenly singing along toward the latter parts of the evening on the unfortunately unfilmed Glory Hallelujah song. Even though I didn't know the lyrics it was quite easy to sing along to the chorus of "There is no God" on that particular song. His backing band The Sleeping Souls had only just gotten their name from the lyrics on one of the songs on his new album. Before that they had been named Dive Dive and had recorded 3 albums.
Shortly thereafter I got myself a CD of the album he was promoting at the time
and then a collection of his greatest hits
and now here I am six years later listening repeatedly to his latest offering just released on Star Wars Day, 2018.
Being a huge fan of his hommage to Britishness I found his next album of songs about love gone wrong and heartbreak a bit of a disappointment when I first heard it but after a few listens I started to come around.
On that particular album the song I liked best was the Fisher King Blues. Being a parent to two teenage daughters the first line really got to me.
After that I went on to read his book which is more of a tour diary than an autobiography
and I listened to the band he was in before going solo called Million Dead. It's a bit hard to understand what he's singing on their 2 albums unless you have the lyrics written down in front of you but then again that was a very loud HardCore Punk Band.
Here is a Million Dead song that he rerecorded as a solo artist Smiling at Strangers on Trains.
Later on I joined the 10,000 plus strong FaceBook group know rather tounge in cheek as The Frank Turner Army.
I even emailed him asking him some questions about my favourite album of his which he answered thoroughly and when I inquired some more in a later email he sent back a file of the album he put out with his first band named Kneejerk when he was still very young even though I hadn't asked him to. From the point of view of a raving fanboy he seems as nice to his followers as Neil Gaiman used to be before becoming too popular and famous to personally sign books for you and talk to you face to face.
There are a grand total of 13 songs on his new album whose title song comes courtesy of a Clive James poem Leçons Des Ténèbres which bemoans that he should have treated other people more kindly in his younger days. Clive is an Australian author and TV personality who has been very ill for quite a long time now but still manages to write and publish new material including this book which Mr. Turner recommends quite avidly in interviews promoting the new album.
Whether or not you think it's one if his better albums will depend on your musical tastes. It certainly sounds a lot different from his previous ones. According to him this book was a strong influence on the sonics of the album itself
Once I've listened to it a few more times I'll post my full impressions of his latest album here. Videos for songs that have one are shown ...
Frank describes each of the songs and how he wrote them on this Track by Track Guide.
After his previous two albums both made it to #2 here's hoping he finally manages to get a #1 album. Here's the chart positions for his output so far ....ft peak positions
"Don't Worry"
The proceedings commence with Don't Worry a slow gentle tune with a nice steady handclap that sets the pace for most of the rest of the album.
"1933"
This song has the sound and lyrics of the righteously angry not quite so young punk Frank's fans recognize all too well from his previous output.
"Little Changes"
Adding to videos from previous albums where Frank shows just how crap he is at Kickboxing and Tennis we now have visual proof at just how crap he is at dancing. Here he shows dance moves modelled after the animated Penguins from Mary Poppins
"Be More Kind"
The title song is a catchy little ditty where he encourages us all to be more empathetic with other people and not be so negative regardless of how other people are behaving.
"...we've stopped talking to each other.
There's something wrong with that ..."
"Make America Great Again"
Quite a contrast to say Pussy Riot's song whose title is the same slogan.
Unlike for example Roger Waters Frank doesn't point a finger at the present highest office in the land occupant of the White House but tries to be positive about what it is that he likes about the good Old U S of A.
"Going Nowhere"
The empires may fall, and the seas may rise
but I'll be at your side by and by I'm like an armchair I'm going nowhere
"Brave Face"
A choir singalong accompanies Frank and the band
"There She Is"
A ballad for his girlfriend that was previously released in an acoustic version on his Songbook Collection.
"21st Century Survival Blues"
This song's title updates a song by Noel Coward. Frank repeats a phrase he heard a fellow passenger telling him on a plane trip about how to cope when society falls apart
When the harsh winds blow and the world gets cold No you can't trust kindness and you can't eat gold
"Blackout"
How to cope when the world starts falling apart.
We can't turn just around and close the door on the world asking uneasy questions We should be asking ourselves uneasy questions
and now we can add another mondegreen to accompany the invisible llama with a burning camel.
"Common Ground"
Another catchy tune
If all we are is dust to dust Then in the end what’s left of us Are the traces of the way we treat the ones we meet And the ones who trouble us
His advice is that we should all build ourselves a bridge and forgive each other for our faults. The inspiration was T S Eliot's Four Quartets.
"The Lifeboat"
The tune of this reminds me of one of Sting's solo songs Fragile. According to Frank it was inspired by Leonard Cohen and Will Varley
There are victories to grasp more valuable than gold And we will speak of to our children when we're old
"Get It Right"
The final song is a slow moody album that reminds me of Bob Dylan's Dark Eyes.
Last night I had a vision
of people being congratulated
instead of being ridiculed and hated
for admitting that they' ve made mistakes.
My 15 minutes of shame finally arrived when Frank chose my terrible drawing of a cat as one of the images he put out on Instagram for the promotion of the album on the Be More Kind Tapestry ....
In my defence this was done with a mouse on a laptop and that's one of the first times I've ever done that. I'd completely forgotten the name of Frank's cat and instead used the name of one of Philip K Dick's cats but at least it left me sneak in an ft into the image.
The name of Frank's cat is actually ....
3 weeks later my boxed set of the album finally arrived. One nice surprise was this extra song which occupies the B side of the the vinyl single for Blackout.
It reminds me of a Leonard Cohen song ...
You can still submit your own image if you want to.