Review:

on 2011-06-19 WillKosh Said:

England Keep My Bones Review
Will Kosh

We in the states have been slow to catch on to the charms of Frank Turner. He was opening for the Architects who were opening for Flogging Molly when I saw him play at the Rave in Milwaukee, and operating his own T-shirt stand to boot. I shook his hand there, over the signed CDs and merchandise, and I told him that Love Ire and Song was one of the most under appreciated albums of all time. He gave me a strange sort of look and I realized that I had just paid him a backhanded sort of compliment.

Some critics are saying that Turner's new album, England Keep My Bones, is a return to the singer songwriter's roots, and in a sense this is true, but Frank Turner is a rock and folk singer who launched his solo career fresh off of a stint as the lead vocalist of a post-hardcore punk band. His roots stretch far enough across the musical spectrum to keep even a skin-and-bones, back to basics album eclectic and interesting. England Keep My Bones flows gracefully from fast paced screamers to folksy acoustic jams and rock and roll anthems. Turner's passion for older music (folk of course, as well as classic rock and blues) bleeds through on every track. On I Am Disappeared he skillfully channels some early Bruce Springsteen, then nods at the homage on another track, Redemption.

The name of the album is appropriate. Most of the songs on England Keep My Bones are about England, loving England, traveling in England and how England is such a lovely place to sing songs and drink beers and be nostalgic. The whole national pride angle is certainly part of Turner's charm, but one can't help but wonder while listening to twelve songs solid about why the British Isles are the best place in the world if it will soon become excessive. If a folk singer spent 44 minutes telling us why America is so fantastic I assume that we'd all find it annoying, and applying this formula to any other country (Malaysia? Nepal? The Russian Federation?) just feels odd. But for some reason, as a man who has never set foot on british soil and who's knowledge of the U.K. comes from Doctor Who reruns, I still find the persistent boner that Turner has for all things English sincere and oftentimes moving. Something is probably wrong with me.

The album begins with a bombastic rock song, an anthem that would be at home in any era called Eulogy. Not everyone grows up to be an astronaut! Turner declares. Not everyone was born to be a king! Not everyone can be Freddy Mercury, but everyone can raise a glass and sing! It finds it's high point in English Curse, a haunting a capella condemnation of those who dare to steal the land of an Englishman, and it ends powerfully with Turner relinquishing his belief in god and heaven in Glory Hallelujah. England Keep My Bones is fantastic. It's gripping, it's innovative, and it's almost half as good as Love Ire and Song. That's most flattering backhanded compliment I have to pay.


Rating: 9/10