Ranking Frank Turner’s 10 Albums
Frank Turner first burst onto the music scene as the frontman of the post-hardcore band Million Dead in 2001. The band quickly gained a following with their explosive live shows and politically charged lyrics. However, after the band’s split in 2005, Turner made the move from heavy punk to the folk-punk hybrid that would define his solo career.
Armed with nothing but his guitar and a treasure trove of new songs, he hit the road, embracing the life of a modern-day troubadour. One of Turner’s most endearing qualities is his dedication to touring — he’s played thousands of shows across the globe, including intimate pub gigs and massive festival stages like Glastonbury and Reading. His energetic performances are legendary, and he’s known for turning even the most stoic crowds into a sweaty, singing mass.
Beyond his music, Turner loves to dabble in a bit of everything. He’s an avid reader, often sharing his literary favorites with fans, and has even published a memoir, The Road Beneath My Feet, which chronicles his relentless touring adventures.
Whether he’s busking in the streets or headlining a festival, Frank Turner continues to captivate audiences with his unique blend of punk spirit and folk sincerity, proving that he’s more than just a musician — he’s a modern-day bard.
10. Be More Kind (2018)
If you ever wondered what a radio-friendly, poppy Frank Turner record would sound like, well, Be More Kind is your answer. This is the Turner album you want to put on if you don’t plan to really pay attention to it.
I’ll be honest, this is the only Turner release that I just can’t really get into. Sure, there are some highlights here and there, like the catchy and status quo critical “1933”. But outside of a few sparse bright spots, Be More Kind is kind of a snoozefest of mediocrity.
The album’s overarching theme of positivity and kindness comes across less as a rallying cry for constructive improvement and instead more as a meaningless kumbaya of peace — relying on half-baked platitudes instead of well-thought-out rhetoric.
The stripped-down acoustic tracks sound sincere enough, even if they’re more or less forgettable compared to the rest of Turner’s output.
Throwing in little studio effects here and there simply doesn’t seem to work with Turner’s writing style, as is apparent on the sweeter-than-syrup track “Little Changes” or the low-hanging fruit “Make America Great Again”. Both tracks are some of the worst material Turner has released.
If you’re a Maroon 5 fan, you might like “Blackout,” which sounds like a copy-paste of their established sound. However, I’ll concede that it is a bit catchy.
Simply put, Be More Kind just comes across as razor-thin regarding substance, relying on subject matters that have been beaten to death and on overall fairly subpar lyricism.
Recommended Tracks: 1933 / Brave Face / Going Nowhere
9. Undefeated (2024)
Despite the low position of Turner’s newest album, I actually rather like it and think it has a lot of fun stuff to offer. I struggled with where to put it, moving it between the 5–9 position, but ultimately, I couldn’t put any of the other albums below it.
Undefeated offers up some undeniably catchy highlights like the 50s rock n’ roll inspired “Girl From The Record Shop” or the jig-style “Never Mind The Back Problems” (reminiscent of early Flogging Molly), but there’s also a batch of disappointing lowlights.
The record starts off on a rather sour note with “Do One”. An overly poppy song (to the point of kind of annoying) that champions the avoidance of criticism, which is maybe a genius move for a song that is easy to criticize.
From there on, the tracks vary between silly, personal, and political — really keeping Undefeated from maintaining any one tone (although this is probably the most “fun” record Frank has released).
“Letters” is a great example of the more personal side. It’s a nice, heartfelt song with a solid rhythm and a good bassline. Some other quality personal tracks on the record are the stripped-down “On My Way” or “Somewhere Inbetween.”
On the heavier side, you’ve got the catchy “No Thank You For the Music” as well as the light-hearted “International Hide and Seek Champions”. Neither song offers anything significant in substance, but they’re still good fun.
For lowlights, there’s “East Finchley” where Turner utterly fails to hit one of the notes in the chorus, subsequently sounding like a dying cat (somebody in the studio really should’ve noticed this). “Pandemic PTSD” is a low-hanging relatability track that lacks any nuance and offers up middle school levels of lyricism in “but we got punched in the dick for two straight years”.
“Ceasefire” could’ve been a good song that would offer some personal insight into Frank’s life, but due to some questionable production choices, it comes off a little too generic and radio-friendly. “Show People” is another that could’ve easily been scrapped as it’s not much more than filler.
So, overall, Undefeated is a mixed bag. It contains a lot of jams, but it also has a good amount of skippable stuff.
Recommended Tracks: No Thank You For The Music / Girl From The Record Shop / Never Mind The Back Problems
8. Sleep Is For The Week (2007)
Without being weighed down by expectations, Frank Turner released his debut in 2007, and against all odds, it ended up making quite an impact in the indie and punk scenes.
To this day, Sleep Is For The Week continues to showcase Turner at his most vulnerable and honest. Without the option to rely on studio tricks or bigger musical numbers, the fairly stripped-down tracks featured on the debut expose the real emotionality.
Many of the songs, like “Once We Were Anarchists” or “Vital Signs” are reminiscent of the type of songs you’d hear at local house shows where you could catch your buddy singing his bedroom songs to an audience of friends. Basically, there’s a relatable familiarity to the record.
Despite having this in such a low position, it has a lot of excellent highlights — the best being “Worse Things Happen At Sea”, which I personally think is the best song Turner has ever written (even if I prefer the Truck Sessions version). It’s so unabashedly genuine that it still takes me back to a relationship that ended over a decade ago (when I initially heard it).
Where the album comes up short, is that musically, many of the songs begin to kind of blend together, save for a few tracks like the upbeat “Back In The Day”, the excellent opening track “The Real Damage”, or the live “The Ballad of Me & My Friends” which works as a great closer.
As the debut, this was also the album that set the standard for Frank Turner albums being around 10 minutes longer than they need to be. Cut a few tracks, like “My Kingdom For a Horse” and “The Ladies of London Town,” and the album would have a much better flow with little to no drag.
Recommended Tracks: Worse Things Happen At Sea / Back In The Day / The Real Damage
7. No Man’s Land (2019)
For Turner’s eighth album, he decided to switch things up a bit and write a conceptual album about 13 lesser-known women throughout history. I’ll admit, on the surface, the idea seems a little ill-conceived or gimmicky, but I think he pulls it off well.
No Man’s Land starts off on a very high note with the energetic and folky “Jinny Bingham’s Ghost” before transitioning to the softer, but equally catchy “Sister Rosetta”. Both songs are excellent works by Turner as well as a welcome return to the folky style that initially gained him fame.
The songs’ storytelling nature is a surprisingly welcome change for Turner, as his standard navel-gazing, self-reflective lyricism was beginning to get a bit trite and I found these stories to be quite interesting.
Although the majority of the album is folky, there are a few variations here and there to keep it interesting, like the slow jazz “Nica” or the faster, more rock-centric “The Lioness”. This is undoubtedly more than a simple one-note experimentation.
On the negative side, although the songs are about important women throughout history, I do find that many of them still manage to focus on the men who shaped the women. I guess in some ways, this was hard to avoid, but it does somewhat undersell the point.
Lastly, like most Frank Turner releases, the album is just too long and really begins to drag towards the end. I think this could’ve been a far better release had he cut the last 3 songs. They’re fine tracks, but also don’t really add that much to the album.
Recommended Tracks: Jinny Bingham’s Ghost / Sister Rosetta / The Death of Dora Hand
6. FTHC (2022)
FTHC finds Turner finally coming full circle and re-embracing the punk jams that originally gave him his musical start. While this is certainly not a full-blown punk album, the hints of it are still welcome.
Beginning with a bang, “Non Serviam” serves as the album opener and is by far the heaviest song Turner has yet released, and it’s honestly pretty great. After being unable to tour, you can tell he had a lot of pent-up energy (which is particularly articulated on both “The Gathering” and “Haven’t Been Doing So Well”).
Tying the album back to his debut, Frank provides a couple of songs that address his relationship with his father. The first, “Fatherless”, re-addresses his issues growing up (or not growing up) with his father, while “Miranda” arrives as a bit of a curveball in this relationship.
“Miranda” informs the listener that his father has transitioned into a woman named Miranda and the change has brought a new dynamic to their relationship where he’s learned to forgive his father’s past mistakes. Now, in theory, this song should be quite heartfelt, but in reality it sounds much more like a poppy number meant to evoke emotions from his audience rather than something truly genuine.
Speaking of genuine, “A Wave Across A Bay” is a heartbreaking tribute to the suicide of Scott Hutchison, Frank’s friend and the singer of the band Frightened Rabbit. Although there’s a hopefulness to it, this song is still a pretty gut-wrenching listen.
Although nothing else is quite as heavy on FTHC as the opener, there are a couple of other punk(ish) songs, like the kind of forgettable “My Bad” or the incredibly energetic and catchy “Punches.” This song just begs to be heard live with an audience screaming along.
The rest of the album comprises some okay songs dealing with his relationship and leaving London. They’re pretty hit-or-miss, like “Untainted Love” — sorry Frank, but I really don’t care about how difficult it is to not do cocaine anymore — but overall they’re fine.
Recommended Tracks: Punches / Non Serviam / A Wave Across A Bay
5. Poetry of the Deed (2009)
Turner’s third album, Poetry of the Deed (produced by the underrated Alex Newport), is the last to feature the band’s more classic sound. It’s not that the records made a significant sonic change after this, but they did clearly try to go bigger or more conceptual after this one.
More than any other, this is a perfectly mid-tier Turner record because it’s undeniably good, but it just seems like something is lacking. There are definite hits, but not that many that are clear standouts.
“Live Fast Die Old” does a good job of setting the general theme of the record, while the shorter tracks “Try This At Home” and “Dan’s Song” are clearly reminiscent of that early period of punk-gone folk that has a nice little nostalgia to it.
There are plenty of great ballads on this record, such as “Isabel” or “Sons of Liberty”, but again, none of the songs really seem to stand out as much as better tracks on many of Turner’s other releases.
“The Road” is a great, catchy, big song with some clear-cut singalongs that should always go over well live — and as such, is probably the best song on the album, but even it doesn’t have quite that same ‘it’ factor as some of Turner’s best songs.
Poetry of the Deed is a quality album from beginning to end, but it didn’t really improve upon what Love Ire & Song had offered up the year before and doesn’t have the same level of songwriting and variation as a few of his better records.
Recommended Tracks: The Road / Try This At Home / Richard Divine
4. Positive Songs for Negative People (2015)
This was a tough album to place because, in many ways, it’s Frank’s best, or at least most cohesive release, but there are a few reasons to keep it at a slightly lower position.
Positive Songs For Negative People is an overall pretty accurate album title as a lot of the songs do have an overall hopeful and uplifting attitude, even if many of the themes are rather depressive themselves.
“The Angel Islington” is a quiet, lo-fi acoustic number that opens the record on a somewhat somber note, before switching thing up with the belter “Get Better” — which champions the virtues of positivity.
What really makes the album stand out is its lack of filler, every track on this record has something to offer and there isn’t a single song I would boot. “The Next Storm” is a solid mid-tier Turner track, while “The Opening Act of Spring” is a jaunty and classic English tune.
“Mittens” gets a little close to being corny with its lyrics, but overall pulls it off through a solid melody. Plus, its soft style perfectly transitions into the energetic “Out of Breath” — easily the fastest song on the album, featuring a terrific, Dixieland style piano.
The most beautiful song on the album, “Silent Key,” is one of those epic tracks Turner is so great at creating. It’s definitely the biggest song on the album, presenting a story of woe and hope.
Ending it all, Turner chose a personal story in “Song For Josh”, performed live to help sell the authentic feel of the song.
Really, the only thing this album fails on is that there are no GREAT songs on the record. They’re all good to very good, but I wouldn’t say it contains a top 10 Frank Turner track. Luckily for the album, since it’s his only one under 40 minutes, its brevity significantly helps it never run out of steam.
Recommended Tracks: Out of Breath / Silent Key / Get Better
3. Love Ire & Song (2008)
Turner’s sophomore release finds him refining his songwriting abilities without sacrificing any of that direct-from-the-heart passion that drove his debut.
“Let’s begin in the beginning” Frank utters, accompanied by an acoustic guitar as he opens up Love Ire & Song with “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous”. The song quickly invites the listener in to hear about the adventures of Frank’s friends while simultaneously making you feel like you’re a part of the stories yourself.
The driving force behind this album is familiarity and connectivity. It’s not going to blow you away with its musicality, and the lyrics aren’t deep enough to ostracize anyone; instead, it’s meant to create a shared experience.
There’s an excellent duality of angst mixed with growing maturity spread throughout the record, clearly heard in songs like “Reasons Not To Be An Idiot”, “Photosynthesis”, and the title track.
“Long Live The Queen” tells a painful story about a friend and relies on the simplistic energy of an acoustic guitar to clearly express the agony Turner and his friend were going through. Choosing to keep the song musically simplistic manages to share the message expertly.
There are some love songs (or love-related tracks) here and there which are nice, but not necessarily ground-breaking and the end of the album manages to lose a little steam, but overall, Love Ire & Song provides an excellent portrait of the lost soul trying to find their way in a liminal, transitional phase of life.
The whole thing closing out on the long, soft, piano-driven “Jet Lag” seems to be the best choice to end this chapter of Turner’s life.
Recommended Tracks: Photosynthesis / Long Live the Queen / Reasons Not To Be An Idiot
2. England Keep My Bones (2011)
After 3 good-to-great albums, England Keep My Bones seemed to mark a clear transition to a more mature style of songwriting while also introducing a somewhat conceptual record rather than just the personal stories Frank was used to singing.
This record is undeniably a love letter to England and also an homage to what any of us can consider ‘home’. There are personal stories as well as songs that allude to the ideas of home — all mixed together to create a palette of growth.
England Keep My Bones begins on the simplistic and short “Eulogy” before moving on to a couple of nice, light tunes in “Peggy Sang The Blues” and “I Still Believe”, but it’s not until the album’s fourth track, the folky “Rivers” that the record really finds its groove.
This album features 2 of the best songs that Frank has ever written, both musically and lyrically. “I Am Disappeared” has an immense urgency to it that builds up your anxiety while it energizes you even if it has an underlying sadness. Basically, if you don’t love this song, I’m not sure what you’re getting out of Turner’s music.
The other excellent standout track is “One Foot Before The Other”, another song that is absolutely bursting with energy — a track that just begs you to scream along with the same passionate intensity that Frank brings to it.
There are a couple of other terrific highlights, like the fun, folky “If Ever I Stray” or the anthemic, atheist anthem “Glory Hallelujah.” It’s safe to say that this record includes plenty of live staples.
There are a few misses here and there though. “English Curse” works as a great transition track to “One Foot Before The Other”, but I can’t get over the lack of self awareness in the lyric “if you steal the land of an Englishman, then you will know this curse” considering all the land that the English empire had stolen.
The 3 song run from “Wessex Boy” to “Redemption” is also a bit of a low point for the record. It’s not bad, but it’s clearly of lower quality than the rest of the album.
This is an incredibly English-centered album front to back, but it’s done earnestly and with a lot of heart, so its charm is pretty undeniable.
Recommended Tracks: I Am Disappeared / One Foot Before The Other / If Ever I Stray
1. Tape Deck Heart (2013)
It seems that far too often, when an artist makes the jump to a major, they lose that special something that made them stand out, but luckily for Turner, signing to Interscope didn’t manage to hinder his creative output at all.
Sure, Tape Deck Heart is a little glossier than Turner’s previous 4 albums, but you’d be hard-pressed to say it’s overproduced. The little vibrancy and clarity that the nicer production brings just seems to add to the songwriting and overall emotional output of the songs.
Right off the bat, the album begins with the upbeat “Recovery”, a song that manages to balance positivity and reality to create a lyrically hopeful song without falling into the pitfalls of corniness.
While not every song on the album is an absolute hit, one of the best aspects of the album is that pretty much every song is at least quite good. From the reasonably carefree “Losing Days” to the slow-building “The Fisher King Blues”, there’s almost always something to be appreciated in each song.
Highlights of the album include “Plain Sailing Weather”, one of the most honest and passionate songs that Turner has written. This is a song that beautifully illustrates the gut-wrenching pain of consistently being self-destructive while “Tell Tale Signs” is a slow and melodic personal retelling of childhood trauma.
“Four Simple Words” is easily one of the most fun songs Turner has recorded. It features 4 unique styles all carefully connected together — from the talking meta intro to the soft folky extension, then transitioning to an anthemic chorus before switching to punk verses. It’s hard not to have a smile on your face during this song’s entire runtime.
Are there some songs I could do without? Yeah, maybe “Good & Gone” doesn’t have that clever of lyrics and the closer “Broken Piano” probably overwears its welcome during its slow 5 1/2 minute runtime.
Recommended Tracks: Recovery / Four Simple Words / Plain Sailing Weather
