Make America Great Again - Frank Turner

Make America Great Again - Frank Turner

3:28

Be More Kind, 2018

Written by Frank Turner

Our president is an obese, demented narcissistic kleptomaniac sex criminal.  Found guilty of rape, a serial cheater and all over the Epstein files, his lying and open, naked corruption is enough to make the sleaziest African warlord green with envy.  But while he's a danger, he's only a symptom; he's not even the real problem.  The real black mold all over America's beautiful surface is the millions of people who think this shitbag of a human, who embodies all seven deadly sins, is somehow comparable to Jesus and will follow him blindly into hell because he tells them they're better than people of color.  So happy birthday, America.  I'm sorry you're being strangled to death by power hungry sadists.  I'm hoping you're strong enough to survive if it ever lets up. "Let's make America great again / By making racists ashamed again."  Great song, one of Turner's best.

1933 - Frank Turner

1933 - Frank Turner

3:07

Be More Kind, 2018

Written by Frank Turner

One of Turner's angrier songs, born of the rise in neo-fascism that began around 2016.  It's a hard-hitting slice of fiery punk.  "If I was of the greatest generation I'd be pissed / Surveying the world that I built slipping back into this / I'd be screaming at my grandkids, 'We already did this.'"  It relies a little too heavily on the chorus for my taste but Turner's energy and sincerity keep me hooked.

If Ever I Stray - Frank Turner

If Ever I Stray - Frank Turner

2:54

England Keep My Bones, 2011

Written by Frank Turner and Nigel Powell

In this rousing rocker, found on what I believe to be Turner's best album, Turner notes how life can kick us around and make things look unremittingly bleak, and that's when you're liable to call it quits: "When you've lost the fight, yeah, you've lost that hunger / To pull yourself through the day."  But then, he implores an unseen entity — maybe the invisible hand of friends and family in solidarity — to slap him around a bit if he ever loses faith.  Throw him in the English Channel until he sobers up and remembers his main tenet of life: "As long as I've got me a place to sleep / Clothes on my back and some food to eat / Then I can't ask for anything more." A psalm for the downtrodden and folk-rockin'.

One Foot Before the Other - Frank Turner

One Foot Before the Other - Frank Turner

3:25

England Keep My Bones, 2011

Written by Frank Turner

Surely one of Turner's masterworks, this song finds him asking — rather, demanding — to be scattered into England's reservoirs after he dies. "And then specks infinitesimal of my mortal remains / Will slide down seven million throats and into seven million veins / And I will creep through their capillaries to the marrow of their bones."  Turner all but roars the lines.  It's brash, loud, muscular, cathartic, proud, victorious.  

Get Better - Frank Turner

Get Better - Frank Turner

2:47

Positive Songs for Negative People, 2015

Written by Frank Turner

A positive jam!  A stomper, a wild rollicking rouser that encapsulates Turner's most common themes in his songwriting: seize the day, don't be a jerk, get past the past, improve yourself.  "So try and get better and don't ever accept less / Take a plain black marker and write this on your chest."  I see a few negative or lukewarm reviews of this album, but upon inspection they all seem to be mostly about Turner's politics, so fair warning there.

Poetry Of the Deed - Frank Turner

Poetry Of the Deed - Frank Turner

3:25

Poetry Of the Deed, 2009

Written by Frank Turner

Title trax!

Carpe diem, boys!  Rip up your books!  "Put your Baudelaire away / And come outside and play."  Or, "Enough with words and with technical theses / Let's grab life by the throat and then live it to pieces."  The Poet Laureate of DIY-anarcho-folk-punk tells us to burn bright before the all-too-brief light dies out.  Turner is a doer, an exhorter, a peacemaker and a connector.  But foremost a brilliant songwriter.  

Polaroid Picture - Frank Turner

Polaroid Picture - Frank Turner

3:43

Tape Deck Heart, 2013

Written by Frank Turner

To me, Frank Turner can almost do no wrong.  I mean, as a bishop in the Church of the Unblemished Bob, I have a tendency to put my musical heroes on a pedestal, but I still think it's legit.  He's as honest and literate as Springsteen and raw as Dylan.  His best sing-along songs are Scriptures, this one specifically Proverbs.  The song comes to a crashing faux-finale at its midpoint and gets quiet, reminding us to focus on this, the moment, forget all the guitars and drums and noise.  "So let go of the little distractions / Hold close to the ones that you love / Because we won't all be here this time next year."  Be here now.  

The Real Damage - Frank Turner

The Real Damage - Frank Turner

3:37

Sleep Is For the Week, 2007

Written by Frank Turner

I love, love Frank Turner.  He's my favorite folk-punk anarchist rocker.  This song is entirely acoustic.  It's a first-person account of waking up hungover at an unfamiliar house, feeling guilty and sick, being judged by better-dressed people who know where they're going.  "It was about then that I realized I was half-way through the best years of my life."  Will the narrator make something out of the day?  Will the narrator change his habits?  Or is it an endless cycle?  Turner's songs don't usually offer pat answers, just urge you to think.