With Valentine’s Day right around the corner you might be forgiven for thinking that the long awaited FTHC, the ninth studio album from Frank Turner would be an offering of love and lament.
Instead, Frank forgoes the foreplay and gets straight down and dirty with explosive opener Non Serviam. A gritty punk number with a distorted riff, the track paves the way for a hard-hitting album that is perhaps Frank’s most personal and best yet.
The Gathering is a call to arms and pretty much sums up how much we have lusted for live music during the last two years. Frank recorded the track during Lockdown enlisting the talents of Muse’s Dom Howard on drums and Jason Isbell on guitar.
Fatherless, My Bad and Miranda are three of the album’s most autobiographical tracks. Fatherless and My Bad explore Frank’s strained relationship with his father and catalogue the miserable experience of being shipped off to boarding school.
Miranda by comparison is a beautifully raw and emotionally evocative number. Frank explains “My father is called Miranda these days. She’s a proud transgender woman and my resentment has started to fade,”. The lyrics portray a journey of acceptance, growth, and reconciliation.
The most poignant track on the album is the transcendental – A Wave Across The Bay -Turner’s tribute to his late friend Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit who took his own life in 2018 after a lengthy struggle with depression.
Frank says: “I still miss my friend Scott every day. His passing left such a huge hole in so many lives. I wrote this song in his honor and memory. It was hard to write and record, but I think it does the man some small justice.”
The song provides one of FTHC’s most vulnerable moments and is a fitting contribution to an album that bleeds honesty.
The 14 track album is a welcome return to form for Frank Turner and a nod to his early hardcore days with the Million Dead.
An album of exploration and revelation. Pure, unadulterated Punk.
Welcome back Frank!
FTHC is due out February 11th 2022 via Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor
1 Comment
This review further teases my anticipation for Franks new album.
My preorder is on its way – fingers crossed it arrives today!
I’ve already heard a few tracks from this album and I can’t wait to hear them performed live, in a sweaty venue with hundreds of people singing along – where they belong.