Review of: 'Be More Kind' by Frank Turner

If I was going to rank my favourite songwriters, Frank Turner would be in the top thee (along with Jason Isbell and Kacey Musgraves). Albums like 2009's critically acclaimed 'Love Ire And Song', and 2013's 'Tape Deck Heart' are amazing, deeply personal albums, and 'To Take You Home' and 'Jet Lag' are incredible songs. While his talent is undeniable, none of his albums have exceeded 'Love Ire And Song' in terms of quality, and it didn't look like Turner was interested in pursuing more in that kind of direction in this new album, I was unsure how this was going to turn out. Was it as good as I hoped?

Well, not quite. In short, 'Be More Kind' by Frank Turner is a blunt, thematically incoherent album with enough flashes of brilliance that push it into good territory. The kind of album that attempts to comment on a world that is falling apart, without having any idea how such an event can be overcame. Nowhere close to his best, but a decent, if inconsistent album. In order to explain why this is, the best place to start is the production which mostly clicks for me when the guitars are given more attention to detail in the mix. This is one of the reasons why the simple, yet effective melody on 'Blackout' mostly worked. The roaring punk presence of '1933', the elegant subtlety of 'Be More Kind' and especially 'Lifeboat', as well as the mister hooks on 'Brave Face' and the album standout '21st Century Survival Blues' are all moments that show Frank Turner still has great instincts when it comes to production, but why he does not exercise them across the entirety of the album baffles me.

A huge problem is that a lot of these songs sound so tired. While some of this might be intentional like on 'Going Nowhere', it does not make for a pleasant listening experience. 'Don't Worry' suffers from a similar problem. The album is lacking consistent tight, focused grooves. On that note, sometimes the guitars are pushed into a watery slurry where you can barely hear a cohesive groove like on 'Make America Great Again' with awful vocal production to boot. This almost feels like a cheaper album than his previous efforts, and on no track is this more apparent than 'Little Changes', which might be one of thinnest, most frail song that Turner has ever been associated with.

But, most of my issues with the production could be forgiven if the writing holds up, but once again, we get a mixed bag. Overall, I like the concept that this album tries to explore in an ever crumbling world, but the way that the album presents the issue is a problem. It starts on the very first track where Turner insists to us 'don't worry if you don't know what to do' because he has no idea what he's doing either: 'no one has a clue'. It almost shows an unwillingness to fully engage in the issue at hand. '1933' might be a better song, but suggesting that you're just going to go to the bar and drink away your problems while the world is falling apart does not have a lot of pathos.

'Make America Great Again' tries to be the anthemic political singalong track, but ends up failing by being less focused on how America can pull itself out of the political crisis they're in, and more focused on Turner's experience in America. Even the standout '21st Century Survival Blues' suggests a willingness to just hide away from problems, and it's fine if you're doing it with someone you love (which completely conflicts with the tone and message of the song two songs before, 'Brave Face', but it's not like this album is keen on consistency anyway).

However, where the album starts to get really quite infuriating is on 'Blackout' where Turner sings 'we should be asking ourself uneasy questions', seemingly without realising the difference between asking questions, and fully engaging in potential answers to those questions.

Look, on some level I am being harsh on this album, but that was because I expected it to be great. It gets an extremely light 3.5 / 5 from me.

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5

Best Songs: '21st Century Survival Blues', 'Lifeboat', 'Brave Face', 'Be More Kind'

Worst Songs: 'Make America Great Again', 'Little Changes' 

Review of: 'Speak Your Mind' by Anne-Marie

In a world where female pop stars seem to be coming and going like crazy, including Dua Lipa, RAYE, Mabel, and now, singer Anne-Marie trading the spotlight. This debut album has been long awaited and long overdue, and has been in the making for some time, but, off the bat of a surprisingly good run of singles ('Alarm', 'Ciao Adios', 'Then') I became curious about how this album was going to turn out in the end.

There's no denying that Anne-Marie stand out from the crowd, sporting a significantly more intense and somewhat understated vocal delivery that you don't often get in pop,  but also has demonstrated that she has pipes that could work against more rock instrumentation, possibly filling the role that P!nk left behind and that Demi Lovato failed to fill.

As such, I was willing to give this album a fair chance, even if I was virtually certain the the producers would not allow her to push more in that rock direction. But, even with that, how's 'Speak Your Mind'?

Honestly, it's a mess. The kind of album with insane highs, but horrendous lows that level out into something that's pleasant, but the furthest thing from cohesive or tonally consistent. But it's not like I could have expected anything less given the number of producers and co-writers that have their names attached to this project. Overall, this album pulls every pop trick in the book, and, as a whole, falls flat.

But to get into why this is, the best place to start is Anne-Marie's vocals, and, I get it, her vocal tone isn't for everyone and how much you like the overstated, blaring vocal tone that she uses a fair amount on this album could be a defining factor as to whether or not you enjoy this album. For me, I mostly enjoy it. At its worse, it's just a bit thin like the breathy falsetto she tries on 'Breathing Fire', although the pre chorus on 'Used To Love You' pushes me to my absolute limit of what I can tolerate; it's quite obnoxious.

Speaking of obnoxious, the production and songwriting across these seventeen tracks are, as I've previously said, a total mess. It all starts off on 'Cry' where the mix feels so cluttered and lacking in depth. Songs like 'Then' and 'Some People' have the opposite problem where the production feels so dour and completely clashes with the tone of the rest of the album. In the former case, that can kind of work in trying to convince that ex to just move on with their life.

A song that this concept does not work with, however, is 'Machine', a song where Anne-Marie confronts the idea of being a machine and how it would be better for her as she would be less affected by the bad things that happen in the world that get broadcasted on the news. Only problem with this is that it completely ignores the fact that that humanity that Anne-Marie speaks about in the song as if it is something holding her back, is what makes life worth living in the first place. 'Perfect' is another example. A song about acknowledging ones imperfections that includes the line 'are you impressed with my honesty?'. 

But that isn't even the album at its worse. That would be the relationship songs like the Julia Michaels co-written song 'Trigger'. The relationship is falling apart, but instead of allowing the relationship to meet its natural conclusion, Anne-Marie insists that 'that won't fix it any quicker', and says 'do you really wanna hurt me?'. It somehow gets worse on 'Bad Girlfriend' where she admits to everything she has done wrong in this relationship, but instead of owning her mistakes and improve herself, she so plainly shows no regard for the feelings of the guy in the relationship.

Although, it's not like the guys in the relationships that Anne-Marie sings about are much better. 'Ciao Adios' is the kind of straight forward break up track where she knows the guy is cheating and just removes herself from that situation, a song I mostly like thanks to a strong guitar lead and memorable, sticky hook. Similar case on 'Alarm'. While I'm not the biggest fan of the sandy staccato synth that opens the song, the pre chorus builds some proper intense swell of the deep piano that I really liked.

With that, it's important that I now acknowledge the moments on this album that I really like. 'Can I Get Your Number' is a simply framed song where Anne-Marie is trying go build up the courage to ask to hook up with this guy in amongst the chaos of wounding if it's truly love. It's kind of cliché, but upbeat and catchy production made up of glassy touches and horn like synths can make up for a lot.

I've already talked about how I think the dark intensity of 'Then' really works, but on the opposite end of the spectrum you get '2002', a song about the childhood lifestyle that Anne-Marie lived that could have so easily came across as pandering to her generation, but thanks to Ed Sheeran's sincere co-writing, as well as one of the best pop hooks I've heard all year drive this song into great territory.

But overall, I get there is an audience for this, but between inconsistent songwriting, production, and performances, I would struggle to recommend this to anyone outside of isolated moments. It's a very light 2.5 / 5 from me, and if it wasn't for '2002' bring such a great song, it would have been a lot lower.

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5

Best Songs: '2002', 'Ciao Adios', 'Can I Get Your Number', 'Then'

Worst Songs: 'Bad Girlfriend', 'Trigger'