 
Over the past couple of years Frank Turner has
been working his arse off touring and when he
is not touring he is either writing, recording
or releasing new material and it is safe to say
that all his hard work has paid off as the summer
of 2010 saw him play some massive outdoor stadium
shows supporting Green Day whilst 2011 saw him
headline and sell out pretty much every town and
city across the UK and also play at pretty much
every major UK festival, and now he is kicking
off 2012 with a new rarities compilation in the
form of ‘The Second Three Years’ which
is being released to coincide with his biggest
headline show yet which will see him play to thousands
of people at Wembley Arena.
‘The Second Three Years’ is a compilation
of songs that Frank Turner has been putting together
over the past three years and it is made up of
live tracks, demo’s, b-sides, covers and
general lost or unreleased songs from the past
three years and it is one hell of a compilation
which features 22 tracks which Frank Turner has
put his name to.
The album features a lot of songs which were originally
released on ‘The Rock And Roll’ EP
back in 2010 which happened to be released as
a teaser for his latest album ‘England Keep
My Bones’ and also a lot of tracks which
appeared on the deluxe version of ‘England
Keep My Bones’ and it is these tracks which
make up the first 8 tracks from of the album with
songs such as ‘Pass It Along’ and
‘To Absent Friends’ standing out the
most due to their fast paced and strong sounding
nature.
The most exciting part of the compilation is listening
to Frank Turner cover other classic tracks as
he manages to take an already good sounding song
yet he makes it his own with his unique touch,
let’s take ‘The Greatest Days’
for example which is Frank Turners cover of the
classic Take That song and everything from the
acoustic guitar to Frank’s strong vocals
make it shine way over that of the original Take
that song and will also appeal to non Take That
fans.
‘On A Plain’ is a great cover of the
Nirvana classic which was originally featured
on a Kerrang cover mounted CD but it is great
to see Frank include it on his own compilation
as he really does make this classic song sound
like his own.
The compilation also features covers of classic
tracks from bands such as Bad Religion, NOFX,
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan etc but it is the
Wham cover of ‘Last Christmas’ which
closes the album which stands out the most as
Frank Turner has totally reworked this classic
Christmas song and filled it with emotion and
ripped the Christmas joy right out of it.
With the release of ‘The Second Three Years’
Frank Turner has put together 22 tracks that have
taken over his life over the past three years
and it easily shows off what a diverse yet perfect
career that Frank Turner has been leading as a
solo artist and by the looks of things this is
another chapter of a continuing journey for Frank
Turner with bigger things still to come.
5/5
Review by Trigger
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