A new Frank Turner album is an event. One of the preeminent songwriters of the last two decades, we greet it with high expectations. Not unlike Buck in the book The Call of The Wild by Jack London, life around us becomes increasingly more complicated and vicious daily. Do we become more savage, or learn to “be more kind?” That is often the only question that needs asking.

Frank has been teaching us how to do this, over the travails of his messy stories about the messy world, including his own for years. Or it’s “Punk #$@^@ Rock”, or killing the selfish masters of the world, with his heart in his throat. 

For nearly twenty years as a solo artist and with his incredible backing band, The Sleeping Souls, Frank has built a global audience on the (bad) back of his non-stop touring. Following the smash success of FTxHC, the follow-up Undefeated (both Xtra Mile Recordings),  comes after a considerable amount of new changes and challenges in the world to pontificate about. 

Opening with the uplifting “Do One,” one is reminded of “Four Simple Words”- a similar song in structure that starts with balladry, but erupts into a rocking punk jaunt. There is quite a lot of Tape Deck Heart’s DNA on this new album. This song will shortly be a live staple on the upcoming tour, although the “do do do do do”s in the chorus will either entice a mad sing-along or drive some folks batty. 

Still, Frank is a master of writing hooks and this album is full of them. One thing you can’t escape is his infectious Positive Mental Attitude, left over from his roots. 

The cleverly titled “Never Mind The Back Problems” is an ode to his own musical and touring output and is a nice bit of self-reflection. We get a definite Shane MacGowan/Pogues influence here: half-jangly drunken bar song, half middle finger in the air declaration. The album really takes shape with “Ceasefire.” This is when Frank is at his best: vulnerable, humble, raw, and asking the questions we are way too scared of.  

“Girl From The Record Shop”  is a little fun track featuring The Teenage Joans on the vocals. It’s cute, and an obvious single, though it is the next three tracks that are the heart and soul of this record. “Pandemic PTSD” says it all. These are the words we feel in our bones after the last few years of never quite getting back to “normal.” “Letters” might be the highlight of the entire album; one of his many songs about love and loss. Every album he puts out has three or four of these songs that will just leave you gutted and broken. The autobiographical Springsteen-esque reading of “East Finchley” is self-reflective but triumphant sounding, in the end, and it’d be cool if “No Thank You For The Music” became standard listening for everybody on the internet talking about music (this writer included). People need to be a little less serious and more loving when it comes to bands, and much more suspicious of the industry that hurts more than it helps. This dude knows.  

The back half of the album has a few clunkers, sadly. Some of the standout remaining songs are the upbeat “International Hide and Seek Champion,” the pensive “On My Way,” and “Somewhere In Between,” a track that would have worked just as well with piano and vocals only. 

Closing the album with the incredible title-track, Frank’s words speak into the marrow of existence; how we face adversity, suffering, and still find the will to carry on. With some Paul McCartney/Queen/Billy Joel-style voice and piano only at first, we get a stirring, dynamic force of a track. Frank is so synonymous with being a singing-guitar player, that you forget his first instrument was piano as a youth. 

It was always going to be a tall order to top the last album, surely among the top three or four of his career so far. With his last few releases, Frank has equally given his attention to his raucous punk side, while refining his gifts as a singer-songwriter. There’s no doubt that he is at the top of his game in terms of singing, lyrics, and songwriting right now. More than anything else, Frank Turner is as skilled at dissecting the human condition as any other singer alive.

Thank you, Frank. 

Buy the album here:
https://frankturner.orcd.co/undefeated.OYD

8 / 10
KEEFY