Frank Turner - FTHC (February 11, 2022) Album • Page 7

I don't love the chorus on Punches, something about the melody feels awkward to me, but the rest of the song is great.

 

I’m pleased with this. I need some time to process it still, but in first listen Punches and The Work really stood out to me (and I’m not including any of the pre-release tracks in that assessment).

Just listened to the acoustic versions, and I think “The Work (Acoustic)” is my favorite track on this thing.

 

This album has a therapy session feel.

Happy to have a new FT album to digest. He seems like he’s in a better place personally.

 

This is at least way more fun to listen to than the last couple!

 

given the subject matter I checked out A Wave Across A Bay earlier and oh my god the first line of the chorus made me want to headbutt a wall

'just before you hit the water' Frank? fucking really? you had to be specific? honestly just disgusted.

 

Why do you continue posting in threads about Frank Turner when you clearly despise him?

Don't actually answer. Follow your lead from the No Man's Land thread and just don't participate anymore.

I think it'll be better for everybody, especially you.

 

This album rocks. Glad to have Frank back

 

I wonder if working with The Sleeping Souls (minus Nigel) and a familiar Producer in Costey helped.

 

The chorus to Punches reminds me the damn Arthur theme song lol

 

I've only listened to the album through one time, but honestly, I didn't hear the problem with the lyrics at all. Frank has a history of tackling subject matter with his lyrics in a very direct and blunt way, when someone else would probably tend to go at the same subject from an oblique angle or use a bunch of metaphors or flowery language. Some of it was a little uncomfortable for me, but I wasn't uncomfortable because the lyrics were bad, it was more about the subjects he is attacking head on in this album, lyrically speaking. There were actually a handful of times where the lyrics had me grinning from ear to ear, and the music is awesome for the entire runtime, bonus tracks included.

If I were to cherry-pick subject matter for a Frank song, yeah, I probably don't "want" to hear anything about the pandemic if I'm honest, but at the same time, I definitely don't want to hear a song about Scott Hutchison killing himself, an event which, like the pandemic itself, I wish had never fucking happened, but here we all are. "A Wave Across A Bay" is the better and stronger song, but I honestly don't have any problem with "The Gathering" - it reminds me a lot of a song like "Get Better" from PSFNP. The lyrics from that one about drawing over your heart with a marker always struck me as kinda clunky, but I LOVE the message of the song, and the music and everything else about it sells the lyrics and he/they pull the whole thing off in the end. The worst / most cringe lyrics for me on this were easily "The Zeitbeast", and that doesn't even count really because it's a bonus track. Also, I'm not really someone who loves and craves seeing live music, and it would be so far down my list of things that I miss that the pandemic took away, so a song like "Little Life" really resonates more with me than "The Gathering".

On first listen, the weakest songs for me were probably "Punches" and "Perfect Score" and both of those were good songs that I enjoyed, but I missed the lyrics / couldn't hear what he was saying and I really just don't know what those two songs are even about right now. My other mini gripe would be that I loved "The House Where I Was Raised" and think it would've fit perfectly at the end of the album right after "Farewell To My City", but that is a minor quibble and really just me being silly.

Overall, I thought this was phenomenal and it felt great to have the old Frank back. I feel bad that it doesn't seem to be connecting with some of his other fans in the same way it is for me.

 

I liked parts of this and found other parts extremely grating. Luckily, there are so many songs on the deluxe version that I feel like I could give myself a solid 30-minute version that I'd like a lot more than the full album.

 

The Work is just Love Never

 

Some good, some really bad, but mostly just feeling ... uneven on my first listen. Nothing making me think I'll want to come back to this often. Hmm. We'll see.

 

One of the advantages of having a longer album hahaha

 

Reading how Jason and Craig feel about the album honestly makes me feel like I'm listening to an entirely different album than them...

As an aside, I've been running every day and going to the gym about 4 days per week, and this album is exactly what I've been needing to keep my fat ass trundling along on the treadmill when I really wanna just hop off, leave the gym and go to Burger King.

 

I too enjoy telling people who are grieving what they can and can't say about a situation I have nothing to do with.

 

Overall this is fine. I used to love Frank's music but after the last few, I'm just happy to have a release that has a like 6 songs I'll go back to on.

I quite liked Untainted Love, Wave Across The Bay, Haven't Been Doing So Well, Fatherless, Miranda and Farewell to my City.

 

I kind of just felt like he was yelling at me for half of it, haha.

I do think it's an improvement over the last couple, though.

 

Exactly how I feel.

 

We’ve had it for a day (except the singles). I could tell this album will be a grower for some, but I do think big Frank fans will invest the time. I gave BMK enough listens to say that I really enjoy more of those songs than I did the week of release. For NML, I still have some I go back to back many that didn’t grow on me. FTHC may be better than those two albums, just wanna give it the rightful time a new release from an artist is really like deserves. Having so many songs is a positive to me.

 

That’s the therapy session occurring. Don’t take it personally.

 

I wanted to respond to Craig's earlier post and say that I felt the same way about the yelling at me thing only I loved it and feel like that's exactly what I needed.

 

This. I think someone said it earlier - album sounds like a bit of a therapy session.

Similar album that comes to mind is "Resolve" by Lagwagon, not really a fun listen. But it is what Joey Cape and the band needed to do at the time. Sad Astronaut is both a beautiful but REALLY REALLY tough listen.

 

Yeah I don't mind this on first listen

 

I'm a handful of complete listens in now and I absolutely love this album. Front to back, the whole thing kicks ass.

I thought a few of the really fast tracks were the weaker ones on my first listen ("My Bad", "Punches", "Perfect Score") but I realized that between me losing my hearing, and the fact that I was driving on 95 in heavy traffic for that chunk of the album, I basically just missed them. As soon as I got home and gave the album a good listen in a nice environment I found those songs to be just as great as all of the others, and hugely enjoyable. The acoustic version of "Punches" helped me to know what he's saying, and it's a great version, but I love the full-band, album version a little bit more. This is how I feel about all of the acoustic versions on here, actually - they're cool and I'm glad to have them, but I prefer their album counterparts.

Out of all of the songs for the deluxe version, the only one I'm not crazy about is "The Zeitbeast", and even that one is a fun song, just a little slight and doesn't really fit with everything else the album is doing in my mind. So, in other words, a perfect bonus track. "The House Where I Was Raised" is absolutely awesome though.

Obviously I am pumped that this album is completely clicking with me on all levels, but I am a little bummed that it seems to be leaving a bunch of people who like him, or used to like him, cold. I have been finding myself somewhat out of step lately, and there have been a number of recent releases that people absolutely love that I'm just kinda ho-hum on, or actually think are pretty bad but don't really wanna be a party pooper. Not important really I suppose, just something I find interesting.