I just watched my beloved Boston Bruins win
Game 7 of their first round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It feels
great. Go Go, Black and Gold!
Disc 1253 is… Love, Ire & Song
Artist:
Frank Turner
Year of Release: 2008
What’s up with the
Cover?
Frank in a suit and tie, his traditional concert attire.
How I Came to Know
It: This
was just me drilling through Frank Turner’s back catalogue once I liked him.
How It Stacks Up: I have seven Frank Turner albums. Of those
seven, “Love, Ire & Song” is second.
Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5
“Love, Ire & Song” holds a lot of hope and just the right amount of
bravado. It is a record that reminds you that while you can’t stay young
forever, you should never forget the feeling.
Frank was only 26 when he made this record, but he already has a nuanced
appreciate of the human condition. “Love, Ire & Song” is an exploration of
a man coming to terms with the growing weight of experience and determined to
not let those experiences dull the joy of life.
My only regret listening to this record was only discovering it five
years after its release – it would have made a great live show. Hell, all Frank’s
live shows are great. As it is, it is still an early classic record that
continues to stand up as some of his best work in a career that has plenty of
greatness to choose from.
Turner’s signature folk rock sound is already firmly in place on “Love,
Ire & Song” albeit a bit more stripped down than later releases. The record
has a bevy of songs so brilliant that they continue to muscle into latter-day
live shows and plenty more deep cuts that have every right to the same space.
Frank doesn’t just write songs, he writes anthems. These are songs you
memorize and sing along; songs that make you feel like you are part of
something greater. Turner has tapped into the rebellious spirit of punk rock
but converted this to an English folk-rock feeling.
Don’t look for complicated music making here. Lots of basic guitar chords,
hand claps and Frank belting out his truth. That truth is reflected in songs that
invite you to revel in life’s struggles. His audience is the inner outcast in
all of us. The songs begin with calls to action like “We’re lovers and we’re losers/We’re heroes and we’re pioneers,” “You’re not as messed up as you think you are”
and “Well I guess I should confess that I
am starting to get old.”
However, what’s important in all his music is the willingness to soldier
on. Everyone’s got problems, Frank preaches, but if you’ve got something to
say, then say it. Or as he puts it on “Photosynthesis”
(the most anthemic of all these songs):
“I won’t sit down, and I won’t
shut up
And most of all I will not grow
up”
Turner’s lyrics are so clever it would be tempting to quote them all, but
I’ll stick with this rarely quoted line from the deep cut “To Take You Home”. The song is about dating a Parisian girl and
Turner can’t resist with a little musical allusion:
“And she doesn’t like my songs
but she’s still my mademoiselle
And ‘it goes to show you never
can tell.’”
It is too cute by half, but in the context of the song, it works.
The title track is a five-star song. Over the course of an evening “Love, Ire & Song” captures the
cynicism of watching youth and idealism fade, the casting about for what went
wrong and – ultimately – an appeal to man the barricades one more time. The
song is narratively framed around what is a bit of a drunken bender, but when
confronted with having to choose between what part of the evening’s experience
had a lasting value, siding with ideas over excess:
“Leave the morning to the
morning, pain can be killed
With aspirin tablets and vitamin
pills
But memories of hope and glorious
defeat
Are a little bit harder to beat.”
Any time I am feeling a bit world-weary, or not sure I am making a
difference I can put this song and recharge my batteries. What’s more, the song
– and the record as a whole – doesn’t fill you with false hope. It acknowledges
there are plenty of battles in life you’re going to lose. It just reminds you to
make all your defeats glorious.
Best tracks: I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous, Reasons Not
to be an Idiot, Photosynthesis, Substitute, Love Ire and Song, To Take You
Home, St. Christopher Is Coming Home
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