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'
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