Album Review

Frank Turner - The Second Three YearsFrank Turner – The Second Three Years

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

 Band Members

Frank Turner
 Track Listing
1. Sailor's Boots
2. Pass It Along
3. Rock & Roll Romance
4. To Absent Friends
5. The Next Round
6. Song for Eva Mae
7. Wanderlust
8. Balthazar, Impresario
9. Mr Richards
10. Song To Bob
11. Thunder Road
12. Sally
13. Barbara Allen
14. The Quiet One
15. Build Me Up Buttercup
16. Linoleum
17. The Slow Train
18. The Greatest Day
19. My Poor Friend Me
20. On A Plain
21. Father's Day
22. Last Christmas
 Band Related Links
Frank Turner MySpace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?