Frank Turner - No Man’s Land (August 16, 2019) Album • Page 7

I LOVED that one, I had a genuinely amazing time with that album. However, TDH, EKMB, LI&S … those are next level.

 

I’m going to listen soon too. My expectations are low because concept records can be hard to pull off. Everything has sort of sounded safe so far and textbook which was mentioned bey everyone already.

I kind of want the punk personal edge of Frank back. He seems like he’s a a great place personally, so he’s sourcing inspiration from elsewhere.

I do think he’s a great songwriter and storyteller. He did an amazing tributes to his friends Josh and Lex, with are very personal. I just think historical figures don’t have the same personal connection for him to put into the music over the course of so many songs. Originally I thought this was going EP.

 

This is the best review I've read yet.

 

at this point I guess I'm just hoping for at least one song that I can throw on a mix or something

 

I thought you might like that.

 

I realized this morning this is out tomorrow and I haven't once gone back to it.

Not great.

 

I listened to the first two songs in full, then skipped through a few others, then turned it off. I think he said "London Town" like six times in that limited amount of listening.

 

Very folklore in nature. Like someone wanted people do a jig. I was hoping for musical variety but it’s a little same-y for a full length.

Lioness and A Perfect Wife sounds a little more modern. I sort like a few of the folk songs, but they don’t stand out because there are so many on first listen. Not a fan of Nica. Sister Rosetta still sounds like a Wikipedia page (that wasn’t an original comment but whoever posted it months back deserves credit). Original Silent Key is better. Rosemary Jane has a more personal Frank charm.

That’s only one listen through though, and may be more than some people give it.

 

Sr. Rosetta IMO is the worst one and worst offender of the "reading a printed out fact sheet" style of lyrics.

and yeah, "London Town" needs to be retired from his vocabulary when writing tunes.

 

This would be a lot more interesting if he’d chosen to write an album of narrative songs about original female characters. The historical thing makes him seem so detached from the songs in a super bizarre way that I’m not sure I’ve ever heard on an album before.

 

I was hoping for him to write these songs from these women's first person perspective but instead like you said I feel like we are just doing homework the night before the test. Your idea above ... wow that would be cool.

 

I liked Silent Key (original). He told the story, and used Esme as the female perspective in that song as Christa.

Long Live The Queen about his friend Lex is a top notch Frank song, and as I said, Rosemary Jane has a personal charm.

He could have spread it out over original female characters, historical female characters and females in his life. I will say though, since he’s a history buff I can see why he just kept it mostly in that direction. Didn’t work for me entirely, but he put a lot of thought into it and tried something different.

 

Damn. Exactly what I was worried about.

 

At this point I'm expecting to like this less than BMK which is a sad sentence to type

 

I like BMK better than this, but I may have dropped a few songs off BMK and replaced them with a few from NML.

 

I gave the whole album a listen on my ride in just now. I agree that Frank isn't really a strong enough songwriter to pull this off, or he didn't work hard enough on writing these songs. Some of these lyrics absolutely sound like he just tried to make a Wikipedia page rhyme, or as if he wrote them in about 5 minutes on a whim. I was hoping for some exciting surprises and/or curve-balls musically as well, and there aren't really any here at all. Almost entirely light folk rock.

All of that being said, I do think there are a few strong songs on here. "Rescue Annie" and "Graveyard of the Outcast Dead" are both very good. I would say "Death of Dora Hand", "The Lioness", "Hymn of Kassiani" & "I Believed You, William Blake" are all pretty worthwhile as well. I did not like the closer about his mother at all when it started playing, but honestly it had won me over by the end of the song.

The rest of the songs range from pretty boring to flat-out bad. I am not a fan of this arrangement of "Silent Key" at all, and it might be the worst vocal performance I've ever heard Frank give on a record.

 

My listen tomorrow will be interesting

 

god i actually hated this. i don't even know if i'll leave it downloaded on my phone.

 

Imo, this is way worse than Be More Kind.

 

Rescue Annie is so many levels of fucked up and a song he just should not have written. I was never going to have anything good to say about this anyway but what in the absolute FUCK????

 

yeah rescue annie made me actually cringe

 

wrong'un behaviour from Frank here, fucking hell. I'd ask him to defend it on Twitter but he has me blocked of course

 

he'd also completely implode as per usual when it comes to criticisms

 

this album makes BMK look like EKMB