My Far Too Long Review of Frank Turner's England Keep My Bones
Seriously, this thing is over 2k, but I really like Frank Turner, okay?
Frank Turner Album Review:
England Keep My Bones Deluxe Edition, Amazon Digital
Track 1: Eulogy
Eulogy opens with a very slow, almost jazz-like, horn section. It fades out to be filled with Frank Turner and his guitar, singing, moving into a punk rock vibe. It’s a simple intro of a song, but even in its two verses, there are great lines such as Not everyone can be Freddie Mercury and But on the day I die I’ll say “At least I fuckin’ tried,”. I’ve always loved how Frank does his intro album tracks and this one is probably the most finished in terms of production so far, but it’s his fourth studio-length album, so that’s to be expected.
Track 2: Peggy Sang The Blues
Peggy also has a nostalgia about her. In the shakers, the piano, and the guitar strumming. This track is one of few Frank released before the album came out. I still love it. It’s a good, decent rock song. It’s just fun, and done in the story-telling way in the best way of folk-rock music. And like all of Frank’s songs, it contains a line that just hits right to the heart for me:
It doesn’t matter where you come from, it matters where you go, and no one gets remembered for the things they didn’t do.
Also it contains a good use of handclaps (which I’m always a sucker for) and, really I’m guessing from the note on his album booklet he either wrote this song for his Grandma or Great Aunt, so that gets so many points.
Track 3: I Still Believe
This song is one I’ve already gone into great detail since last October over my love for. It’s also on Frank’s EP Rock & Roll. It’s a great track and I love it. I always will. I can’t help but sing-a-long at the top of my lungs.
I still believe in the sound that has the power to raise a temple, and tear it down. I still believe in the need for guitars and drums and desperate poetry.
Well done, Mr. Turner, on this track. It’s one of your best.
Track 4: Rivers
Rivers starts off with an almost blues-bluegrass guitar feel. It’s so rich in terms of string playing. There’s acoustic guitars and mandolins and fiddles, and if you’ve been on this journal since I started making Hillbilly Jones fanmixes, you can probably guess how much I love those three things.
Rivers is both a history of Frank Turner’s life, and that of a Wanderer’s and England’s own history.
So place your trust into the seas, it’s kept us safe for centuries, it’s shaped our shores, and steadily, its care has brought us calm. And when I die, I hope to be buried out in English seas…
It’s a slow, calm song, that shows just how much Frank Turner loves his homeland, where he grew up, and how its shaped him.
Track 5: I Am Disappeared
Frank was so proud of this song he purposefully leaked it months ago. It made me cry the first time I listened to it. There are times for all of us, when we stumble across a song, and it feels like someone has gotten into our heads, hearts, souls, and taken everything they’ve seen there and brought it into music and lyrics. For me, and my headspace at the time I first heard this track, that happened.
It’s something about the lyrics, the style of the music, Frank’s singing, everything. This song has fast become my favorite Frank Turner song and still, to this day, whenever I come across it on my mp3 player, I have to stop and listen to it all.
And on the worst days, when it feels like life weighs, ten thousand tons, I sleep with my passport, one eye on the backdoor, so I can always run. I could get up, shower, and in half an hour I’d be gone.
And come morning, I am disappeared.
Track 6: English Curse
The song is Frank singing about the legend of the curse of the New Forest, which took two of William the Conqueror’s sons. Frank sings it a cappella, and he gets so many points for the ACTUAL story-telling this time around.
Track 7: One Foot Before The Other
This is the most rock of all the songs on the album. Kind of unique for a folk-punk-rock musician, not getting to the real thriving drum, bass, and rock until track seven. On one hand it feels full of anger, but on the other it’s about legacy, both the actual (ashes to ashes, dust to dust) and the ephemeral (how artists leave behind their works).
And all the cells in all the lines upon the backs of both my hands were once carved into the details of two feet upon the sand.
Track 8: If Ever I Stray
This is pretty much quintessential Frank’s style of punk-folk-rock. Basically, acoustic and electric guitars, pounding drums, banjos, trombones, saxophones, accordions, god know what else. There’s shouting-singing, which you’d expect to hear in a bar or pub somewhere. It’s Frank’s pretty much blanket apology to all the friends, families, and lovers he sort of leaves behind when he gets wrapped up in this music thing, how he’s thankful for their support, and how, if he fucks up, they apparently have the permission to throw him in the English Channel.
Forgive me someone for I have sinned.
And I know not where I should begin,
And some days it feels like you just can’t win,
No matter what you do or say.
Things didn’t kill me but I don’t feel stronger
Life is short but it feels much longer
Track 9: Wessex Boy
Starts off with acoustic playing, laughter, and handclaps. Frank has written about his love for his home and Winchester on every single one of his albums. (He is proud of his own history and land, you got to give him respect for that.) This song is a full tribute. His reason for this song, well it’s summed up in a verse:
There’s something about hometowns that you never can escape, the triumphs and the tragedies, the tawdry little fates, the welling of nostalgia, the feeling kind of strange, because despite all of the little changes, the place still feels the same.
There is a feel of nostalgia in the whole song, because of the style of music used, and again, the handclaps and the la-la-las. It feels like a sweet summer song and it can’t help but bring a little smile to the face.
Track 10: Nights Become Days
Yet another song led off by acoustic (which Frank plays so well), but distinct. One thing I do love about Frank Turner and his band, is that though the songs all have the same essential elements, they don’t sound like exact copies. Nights Becomes Days is a very slow song. It’s about drug abuse, starting from youthful experimentation to addiction. It’s a beautiful, haunting song, with cellos and very James Taylor-esque in its calm way of singing about drug abuse, suicide, the loss of life. While I usually love Frank Turner’s songs for their lyrics, in this case, it truly is the music itself that does it for me.
Track 11: Redemption
Redemption starts off with a steady drum beat, going into an almost modern-acoustic-rock style, with a piano. It feels like something you would hear in the mid-90s.
But, look, I have to love this song, because he mentions listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run. It’s guaranteed love.
Redemption as a lyrical composition is pretty much what it states. It’s full of thinky-thoughts. Both on what shapes a person, and how you can sabotage a relationship because of your issues, because you know and feel your partner deserves better than anything you can offer. It’s about confession, about an honest laying out of your failures and even if after doing that, can you admit and confess and apologize to the person who really deserves it.
But I know that in the end redemption is mine, and mine alone.
Track 12: Glory Hallelujah
This track, the final on the regular album, opens with a church organ. Really, would you expect anything else with that song title?
Funnily enough, it’s a song which contains the phrase “There Is No God” over and over again. And sung in a Church Revival Style. To be fair, Frank has a bit written in his album’s liner notes stating, “With apologies to my religious friends, and also my mother.”
It’s a cheery little indictment of religion but its message is also about doing the right things now as opposed to waiting for predestination or salvation. I mean, I’m sure it will offend some people, and I guess as a Roman Catholic I should be all, “Oh, hells no,” but I’ve never really been bothered by other people’s religious beliefs or non-belief (and esp moving to a part of the country where people take joy in telling me a) I’m going to hell and b) I’m not even Christian), and I always award people points for being clever and witty. You essentially make a gospel song out of a song going against religion, I think you’re kind of cheeky, but I still like ya.
Now for the songs on the deluxe edition
Track 13: Song For Eva Mae
It’s a song for his friends' daughter. I’m guessing they asked him to be a godfather, but he asks Eva not to judge him too harshly, and he’s sorry he’s not going to be there all the time, but here’s some of his words of wisdom.
And we can none of us ever be perfect, but Eva, my darling, we can try our best.
I only wish I had such a cool song from my godparents. Though to be fair I have a nurse/photographer godmother who’s quick thinking is probably one of the reasons I’m alive right now. And well, my godfather is my uncle Bill and he never fails to make me laugh.
Track 14: Wanderlust
I am pretty much guaranteed to love any song with Wanderlust in the title. This one is no different, love the instruments used, and the lyrics. I adore the way the music builds. It’s a sad, beautiful love song, about missing the one you love, about mourning the separation and time away even while you’ll still at home.
Darling, I’m leaving, the distance keeps calling me on. Darling, come morning, I’ll be gone.
It’s honestly one of my favorite songs on the album, so I am glad I forked over my money to buy the deluxe edition.
Track 15: Balthazar, Impresario
It’s about dying arts, in this case, taking the stage for the music hall. It’s about the tiny, few, unknown dive bars and music stages. It’s not about singer-songwriters solely, but about the people who perform just for the sake and the art of performance, music, the crowd. It’s for those who take the stage, not to be famous, but because something inside drives them to do so.
Always make them laugh, try to make them cry, always take the stage like it’s the last night of your life.
Tracks 16-18 are acoustic versions of Peggy Sang the Blues, I Still Believe, and I Am Disappeared. They all showcase how Frank’s voice is strong even when he sings live.
So, my overall feelings: It’s a great album, full of Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, playing their hearts out and singing some of the darkest thoughts in their minds. It’s an album about growth, reflection, history. It’s an album that I, closer to 30 than 25, truly relate to. It’s just a full album, that still manages to be simple and contain its indie punk-folk-rock charm. It’s the most calm in terms of tone and music style of Frank’s albums, but I still love it.
I am almost baffled that Frank Turner isn’t more famous. He is an absolute amazing performing, he sings his heart, he's genuine and his whole band is full of great musicians. He had the ability to bring down a whole crowd in Boston who had never heard of him, who were waiting for Flogging Molly to play, and he got everyone in that venue to come along on his journey and trust me when I say, that is not an easy crowd to work with. I sincerely hope that with the release of this album, more people discover Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls (the new name for his band), over four albums and various EPs, there is a song for everyone out there.
Frank Turner Album Review:
England Keep My Bones Deluxe Edition, Amazon Digital
Track 1: Eulogy
Eulogy opens with a very slow, almost jazz-like, horn section. It fades out to be filled with Frank Turner and his guitar, singing, moving into a punk rock vibe. It’s a simple intro of a song, but even in its two verses, there are great lines such as Not everyone can be Freddie Mercury and But on the day I die I’ll say “At least I fuckin’ tried,”. I’ve always loved how Frank does his intro album tracks and this one is probably the most finished in terms of production so far, but it’s his fourth studio-length album, so that’s to be expected.
Track 2: Peggy Sang The Blues
Peggy also has a nostalgia about her. In the shakers, the piano, and the guitar strumming. This track is one of few Frank released before the album came out. I still love it. It’s a good, decent rock song. It’s just fun, and done in the story-telling way in the best way of folk-rock music. And like all of Frank’s songs, it contains a line that just hits right to the heart for me:
It doesn’t matter where you come from, it matters where you go, and no one gets remembered for the things they didn’t do.
Also it contains a good use of handclaps (which I’m always a sucker for) and, really I’m guessing from the note on his album booklet he either wrote this song for his Grandma or Great Aunt, so that gets so many points.
Click to viewTrack 3: I Still Believe
This song is one I’ve already gone into great detail since last October over my love for. It’s also on Frank’s EP Rock & Roll. It’s a great track and I love it. I always will. I can’t help but sing-a-long at the top of my lungs.
I still believe in the sound that has the power to raise a temple, and tear it down. I still believe in the need for guitars and drums and desperate poetry.
Well done, Mr. Turner, on this track. It’s one of your best.
Track 4: Rivers
Rivers starts off with an almost blues-bluegrass guitar feel. It’s so rich in terms of string playing. There’s acoustic guitars and mandolins and fiddles, and if you’ve been on this journal since I started making Hillbilly Jones fanmixes, you can probably guess how much I love those three things.
Rivers is both a history of Frank Turner’s life, and that of a Wanderer’s and England’s own history.
So place your trust into the seas, it’s kept us safe for centuries, it’s shaped our shores, and steadily, its care has brought us calm. And when I die, I hope to be buried out in English seas…
It’s a slow, calm song, that shows just how much Frank Turner loves his homeland, where he grew up, and how its shaped him.
Track 5: I Am Disappeared
Frank was so proud of this song he purposefully leaked it months ago. It made me cry the first time I listened to it. There are times for all of us, when we stumble across a song, and it feels like someone has gotten into our heads, hearts, souls, and taken everything they’ve seen there and brought it into music and lyrics. For me, and my headspace at the time I first heard this track, that happened.
It’s something about the lyrics, the style of the music, Frank’s singing, everything. This song has fast become my favorite Frank Turner song and still, to this day, whenever I come across it on my mp3 player, I have to stop and listen to it all.
And on the worst days, when it feels like life weighs, ten thousand tons, I sleep with my passport, one eye on the backdoor, so I can always run. I could get up, shower, and in half an hour I’d be gone.
And come morning, I am disappeared.
Track 6: English Curse
The song is Frank singing about the legend of the curse of the New Forest, which took two of William the Conqueror’s sons. Frank sings it a cappella, and he gets so many points for the ACTUAL story-telling this time around.
Track 7: One Foot Before The Other
This is the most rock of all the songs on the album. Kind of unique for a folk-punk-rock musician, not getting to the real thriving drum, bass, and rock until track seven. On one hand it feels full of anger, but on the other it’s about legacy, both the actual (ashes to ashes, dust to dust) and the ephemeral (how artists leave behind their works).
And all the cells in all the lines upon the backs of both my hands were once carved into the details of two feet upon the sand.
Track 8: If Ever I Stray
This is pretty much quintessential Frank’s style of punk-folk-rock. Basically, acoustic and electric guitars, pounding drums, banjos, trombones, saxophones, accordions, god know what else. There’s shouting-singing, which you’d expect to hear in a bar or pub somewhere. It’s Frank’s pretty much blanket apology to all the friends, families, and lovers he sort of leaves behind when he gets wrapped up in this music thing, how he’s thankful for their support, and how, if he fucks up, they apparently have the permission to throw him in the English Channel.
Forgive me someone for I have sinned.
And I know not where I should begin,
And some days it feels like you just can’t win,
No matter what you do or say.
Things didn’t kill me but I don’t feel stronger
Life is short but it feels much longer
Track 9: Wessex Boy
Starts off with acoustic playing, laughter, and handclaps. Frank has written about his love for his home and Winchester on every single one of his albums. (He is proud of his own history and land, you got to give him respect for that.) This song is a full tribute. His reason for this song, well it’s summed up in a verse:
There’s something about hometowns that you never can escape, the triumphs and the tragedies, the tawdry little fates, the welling of nostalgia, the feeling kind of strange, because despite all of the little changes, the place still feels the same.
There is a feel of nostalgia in the whole song, because of the style of music used, and again, the handclaps and the la-la-las. It feels like a sweet summer song and it can’t help but bring a little smile to the face.
Track 10: Nights Become Days
Yet another song led off by acoustic (which Frank plays so well), but distinct. One thing I do love about Frank Turner and his band, is that though the songs all have the same essential elements, they don’t sound like exact copies. Nights Becomes Days is a very slow song. It’s about drug abuse, starting from youthful experimentation to addiction. It’s a beautiful, haunting song, with cellos and very James Taylor-esque in its calm way of singing about drug abuse, suicide, the loss of life. While I usually love Frank Turner’s songs for their lyrics, in this case, it truly is the music itself that does it for me.
Track 11: Redemption
Redemption starts off with a steady drum beat, going into an almost modern-acoustic-rock style, with a piano. It feels like something you would hear in the mid-90s.
But, look, I have to love this song, because he mentions listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run. It’s guaranteed love.
Redemption as a lyrical composition is pretty much what it states. It’s full of thinky-thoughts. Both on what shapes a person, and how you can sabotage a relationship because of your issues, because you know and feel your partner deserves better than anything you can offer. It’s about confession, about an honest laying out of your failures and even if after doing that, can you admit and confess and apologize to the person who really deserves it.
But I know that in the end redemption is mine, and mine alone.
Track 12: Glory Hallelujah
This track, the final on the regular album, opens with a church organ. Really, would you expect anything else with that song title?
Funnily enough, it’s a song which contains the phrase “There Is No God” over and over again. And sung in a Church Revival Style. To be fair, Frank has a bit written in his album’s liner notes stating, “With apologies to my religious friends, and also my mother.”
It’s a cheery little indictment of religion but its message is also about doing the right things now as opposed to waiting for predestination or salvation. I mean, I’m sure it will offend some people, and I guess as a Roman Catholic I should be all, “Oh, hells no,” but I’ve never really been bothered by other people’s religious beliefs or non-belief (and esp moving to a part of the country where people take joy in telling me a) I’m going to hell and b) I’m not even Christian), and I always award people points for being clever and witty. You essentially make a gospel song out of a song going against religion, I think you’re kind of cheeky, but I still like ya.
Now for the songs on the deluxe edition
Track 13: Song For Eva Mae
It’s a song for his friends' daughter. I’m guessing they asked him to be a godfather, but he asks Eva not to judge him too harshly, and he’s sorry he’s not going to be there all the time, but here’s some of his words of wisdom.
And we can none of us ever be perfect, but Eva, my darling, we can try our best.
I only wish I had such a cool song from my godparents. Though to be fair I have a nurse/photographer godmother who’s quick thinking is probably one of the reasons I’m alive right now. And well, my godfather is my uncle Bill and he never fails to make me laugh.
Track 14: Wanderlust
I am pretty much guaranteed to love any song with Wanderlust in the title. This one is no different, love the instruments used, and the lyrics. I adore the way the music builds. It’s a sad, beautiful love song, about missing the one you love, about mourning the separation and time away even while you’ll still at home.
Darling, I’m leaving, the distance keeps calling me on. Darling, come morning, I’ll be gone.
It’s honestly one of my favorite songs on the album, so I am glad I forked over my money to buy the deluxe edition.
Track 15: Balthazar, Impresario
It’s about dying arts, in this case, taking the stage for the music hall. It’s about the tiny, few, unknown dive bars and music stages. It’s not about singer-songwriters solely, but about the people who perform just for the sake and the art of performance, music, the crowd. It’s for those who take the stage, not to be famous, but because something inside drives them to do so.
Always make them laugh, try to make them cry, always take the stage like it’s the last night of your life.
Tracks 16-18 are acoustic versions of Peggy Sang the Blues, I Still Believe, and I Am Disappeared. They all showcase how Frank’s voice is strong even when he sings live.
So, my overall feelings: It’s a great album, full of Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, playing their hearts out and singing some of the darkest thoughts in their minds. It’s an album about growth, reflection, history. It’s an album that I, closer to 30 than 25, truly relate to. It’s just a full album, that still manages to be simple and contain its indie punk-folk-rock charm. It’s the most calm in terms of tone and music style of Frank’s albums, but I still love it.
I am almost baffled that Frank Turner isn’t more famous. He is an absolute amazing performing, he sings his heart, he's genuine and his whole band is full of great musicians. He had the ability to bring down a whole crowd in Boston who had never heard of him, who were waiting for Flogging Molly to play, and he got everyone in that venue to come along on his journey and trust me when I say, that is not an easy crowd to work with. I sincerely hope that with the release of this album, more people discover Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls (the new name for his band), over four albums and various EPs, there is a song for everyone out there.