Frank Turner - Be More Kind (May 4, 2018) Album • Page 32

What is this referring to?

 

Probably all of this unless he's been at it again recently

 

Probably the Mongol Horde controversy to do with the band name, and I seem to remember another incident on his personal account.

 

Yep you got it. He responded VERY poorly to someone politely bringing up how his side project's band name can be offensive.

Another situation occurred regarding a fan selling either stickers or buttons at a show after being told not to. I don't remember the total story, however, he was very rude on social media and there were screenshots of emails shared where he was very rude. Again ... I'm sure there could be other parts to the story missing.

 

What's that second situation about? Yikes.

 

When I heard the description I would have assumed this project was going to be mostly acoustic, but the fact that he described this as "sprawling and experimental" has me extremely excited to hear this - and Catherine Marks producing it is like the icing on the cake.

 

I just revisited the posts we had on it and I remembered it incorrectly. A fan was selling Lost Evening buttons at the show and Frank was pissed by it and the tour manager was rude/laughed via email at the fan. I think Frank did have some tweets about it, but the situation just seemed very unnecessary.

Page 16 on this thread has the situation. You’ll see your posts to remind yourself!

 

Oh so it was even EARLIER than the other thing lol. Thanks!

 

Yeah, history has shown that he's just very quick to the defensive, which is usually a bad look. He always tries to walk it back after the fact too which looks even worse than if he just took a minute to reconsider his position.

 

I am a big fan of Frank Turner's, but I definitely found it funny that what was easily his hand's down worst album had the message to just be nicer to each other, and he had a couple social media kerfluffles around that time where he came across like a real prick.

 

Be More Kind is kind of a tough sit to listen to it straight through, but I find whenever a track comes up on shuffle I enjoy it. I think it's the victim of expectations in some ways. The songs aren't bad individually. It's just missing SOMETHING when taken as a total album all at once, and it's too soft overall

 

I agree with a lot of this, only with the exception that I do think some of the songs are actually bad individually.

 

People tend to get very defensive quickly when it comes to family and how they make their money, right or wrong.

Also, people in the media often receive a heavy load of criticism, often over things no one has the right to criticize. When someone has a valid concern, it may just be read as another criticism, and dismissed. It’s too bad private messaging or in in person conversations couldn’t happen to understand when there is a general concern.

I’m not saying that’s the case with Frank and his side project band or the fan/bootlegged merch or whatever, I just know from working with some public and famous figures how this stuff can play out.

And naming an album Be More Mind doesn’t mean Frank is excluding himself from the concept being more kind to people.

He really could use a new album soon though to change the dialogue. I’m looking forward to new music, and I’m sure like with all bands, there will be another round of criticisms.

 

Frank playing 4 straight shows in Boston ... and I stupidly not getting tickets as it went on sale and not realizing floor tickets are all unavailable EVERYWHERE is really stressing me out now.

 

not a huge fan of a lot of the songs, and then some of them I think I like the songs, but I'm just not a fan of the production on that album, can't pinpoint what it is but just feels flat or lifeless, I don't know. make America great again I definitely think is one of the worst songs he's written though.

looking forward to a new album and I'm pretty sure it's with a different producer.

 

I thought about driving up from NY and doing at least Friday and Saturday of this weekend but I couldn't make it work at the time. This weekends gonna be a blast for all in attendance. It's so cool that he's successfully done this 3 years straight and even more impressive that (even though he has a huge fanbase here) he was able to seemingly seamlessly bring it overseas.

 

Yeah it is crazy! Last year when he played like 7 shows in Boston there were floor tickets PLENTY available on Stubhub and I just assumed it would be the same deal this time around. NOPE. He really does have such an intense fan base here in MA ... props to him and everyone going!

I really want to do Friday/Saturday (Friday for the set and Saturday cause of my friends can attend) so I will still be looking, but overall glad to see this was a huge success ticket sale wise.

 

I seriously considered getting a 4 day pass and flying from California when he announced the fest, but I put it off and next thing I knew it was sold out.

I found myself in Boston anyways this week and found a ticket for tonight on stub hub that was cheaper than what Live Nation sold it at. Just going night 1, but very much excited for the festivities.

 

So as I was saying earlier ... now a good chance I'll be going tonight-Saturday lol.

 

There were four different producers listed because I believe he recorded the songs a different times in different locations. That could be why you?

I actually think the production is good, and didn’t realize that it was done this way. For me, I think there are just a few tracks I find boring or stylistically repetitive, mostly later in the album.

I will say I think I still like more of the album than most.

 

I'm in the minority but I actually like the song MAGA, cheesy lyrics or not. And it's better live than on album too.

 

I like the song too. I get what he’s trying to do by taking back the phrase, and by explaining his position in the song.

I also get why some people can’t get past it too though for obvious reasons.

It definitely was a bold move and the message of the song fits the album theme. The video shows it comes from an honest place.

 

Yes. Agree with you. You said it way better than I could. I don't know if the criticism comes more from the title or the on-the-nose lyrics, but either way it works for me.

For me personally Common Ground and The Lifeboat is where he starts to lose me. The first 10 songs are all somewhere between fine to good. Just not really "CONSISTENTLY GREAT" like past work.

 

For me, if he is going to use that as the title then everything from the lyrics to the production just needed more teeth, needed to be angrier. Without getting too crazy and out there, an arrangement similar to "1933" would have suited this topic much better. It needed stronger lyrics that hit a little bit harder as well.

 

The whole album needed more songs like 1933, I agree.