After successfully escaping my desk to eat my lunch outside I sought a bench nearby that was both out of the wind, but in the sun. Alas, it was not to be. I chose a bench that was partly out of the wind, but wholly in the shade. Believe me, dear reader, when I tell you it was the only option.
Disc 1565 is…. Poetry of the Deed
Artist: Frank Turner
Year of Release: 2009
What’s up with the Cover? Guitar art (guitart?) Here we have Frank Turner’s guitar (identified by its signature F/T/H/C punk logo), surrounded by a flock of birds with the strings in their beaks.
The birds might be playing a tune, as birds are wont to do, but given that the birds all have an “x” on their heads, it is also possible they are ‘muting’ the strings.
How I Came To Know It: This album came to me early in my love of Frank Turner as I began to dig backward from my first Frank album, 2013’s “Tape Deck Heart”. My first stop was 2011’s “England Keep My Bones” and my second was…right here.
How It Stacks Up: I have eight Frank Turner albums and competition is tough at the top, but “Poetry of the Deed” still manages to land at #3.
Ratings: 4 stars
If you ever want to feel great about life, but you don’t want your hopeful tunes to be empty calories, then Frank Turner is the artist for you. Turner is the master of joyful anthems that have all the uncertainty the real life offers, but that are reassuring all the same. If anything, the edge is what makes the reassurance believable.
This is still early Frank Turner, and a lot of his work is wrapped up in the power of art, but for Turner that creative spirit is reflected in action and intent. Nowhere is it more evident than on the title track, where Frank expresses poetic expression as:
“Before we get
bored, let's be inspired
Let's ignore the applause and set the theater on fire
Fight every war like the drunks in the choir
Put our art where our mouths are poetry of the deed”
There’s a reckless abandon in his delivery throughout the record. The piano get banged with gusto, and the guitar chords threaten to break strings with their hefty reverberation. Turner is a new generation’s Billy Bragg, filled with a mix of wisdom and conviction that is infectious.
My favourite song on the record is “Try This At Home” where exclaims that “we write love songs in C, do politics in G and sings songs abut our friends in E minor.” The song demonstrates the musical filter through which Turner sees the world, although I am always curious as to why songs about our friends are in Em. Feels a little sad, but the song belies that notion and is a joyous celebration of getting on with living.
As on many records, Turner speaks highly of his friends. Drinks in the park on “Dan’s Song” switch later to the quiet introspection and fellowship of “Sunday Nights”. Turner loves companionship and his infectious open heart makes it easy to imagine you are on of those lucky fellows chilling with him late into a Sunday evening when the sensible thing would be to go to bed.
But to go to bed early would be anathema to the energy of “Poetry of the Deed.” This is a record for living, and celebrating each adventure that life brings. The record trips along with a relentless pace and energy and even though it is 13 songs and close to 50 minutes of music, the whole of it is over in the blink of an eye.
The record’s final song, “Journey of the Magi” is the summation of Turner’s philosophy of living life to its fullest and being self-aware and thankful as you do it. In the song, a series of famous characters recount how they regret nothing in choosing adventure over comfort. Its slow deliberate delivery makes you feel like you are being regaled with wisdom around some mythical campfire. The whole record feels like this, exhorting the listener to action while never feeling like a lecture.
Given that I’m on a CD Odyssey, I’ll leave this review with a few lines from “Journey of the Magi” that celebrate Odysseus and remind us to say ‘yes’ each and every time life offers us a dance:
“Now
Odysseus sat tired and alone
He'd always held out against all the doubts he would come home
Now he was here, his soul felt estranged
His wife and his dog, his son and his gods, everything changed”
“He
sang, ‘I could have stayed and ruled
As an Ithacan prince, could've played safe
But in the end journey's brought joys
That outweigh the pain’”
Best tracks: Live Fast Day Old, Try This at Home, Poetry of the Deed, Isabel, Sunday Nights, Journey of the Magi
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