Gareth - 7/27/2011

Frank Turners 4th studio album 'England keep my bones' is a beautifully packaged album. The deluxe edition is a green leather style book bound affair. It's the sort of packaged album that really makes you want to listen to the contents of the album.

The album itself is a very enjoyable listen. Frank Turner has stated that he wanted this album to sound more like a solo album with additional supporting musicians rather that of his last album 'Deeds of Poetry; which sounded like a full band album. I personally think he has achieved what he set out to. Although both this and the last album have been recorded with the same core band members involved, called the Sleeping Souls. His last album had more of a full band sound for a majority of the album, however this album has more of a mix, with some songs only incorporating vocals and acoustic guitar instrumentations, whilst other do have a band feel about them with drums, bass and keyboards involved. There is also an acapella song, which sounds like a traditional folk song that brings images of singing around a campfire in the black of the night

This is a well produced album. I always feel as though and in this case in particular, that Frank Turner albums are always very honest sounding albums. The overall sound and the sound of his vocal always sound fresh and natural and not mixed or manipulated by the production, as though this is the sort of sound you could achieve when playing live.
An early favourite of this album is track 5 'Rivers', a quintessentially English song about the rivers and estuaries of this land of ours.

The song 'Peggy Sang the Blues' has a catchy feel to it that makes you want to sing along, the rhythm has a hint of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers about it. 'I Still Believe', a brilliant song that really gets you going with its 'Hear ye's' and its 'Come ye's'. 'If Ever I Stray' is a real builder of a song, that builds into a shouter of a song, the song 'Wessex Boy' is a song about geographically coming home and that home is always home, no matter if the people change, the place and the sense of home will always remain.

On the deluxe album there are three bonus tracks that are well worth the additional spend. These songs are not as well developed as the rest of the album musically but none the less are amazing songs and some of the best. The first song 'Eva May' is a song where frank plays the role of a man talking to the daughter of a friend who has passed away and saying that he will look out for her and telling her about his life, a basic acoustic song with banjo but beautiful lines such as "He asked me to watch you as you grow" and "hold your hand through the highs and lift you up through the lows" The second bonus track is 'Wanderlust', which is again a low key affair, with Frank, as he does in many songs returning to the topic as all good folk singers do, past and present, the road, travels and moving on. "Distance keeps calling me on", "that there will ever come a morning when I'm staying not gathering to leave", this song is about leaving in the morning. The third bonus track is 'Balthazar Impresario' a man of the stage, an entertainer retiring from the stage after his last performance as he has fallen from favour due to changing cultures, as now all the kids want to do is watch TV.

I would say this album, is stronger than his 2007 debut 'Sleep Is For The Weak' and better than his 2009 album 'Deeds of Poetry'. However I would say that his strongest work still remains on the album of 2007 named 'You, Me & Ire'. But definitely a return to form in my opinion.