‘The Second Three Years’ a play on Black Flag‘s ‘The First Four Years’, is a quirky collection of b-sides, unreleased live tracks and covers from FRANK TURNER. It says a lot about the upward and seemingly unstoppable trajectory that he’s been on these last 3 years that his second rarities collection is as eagerly anticipated as any of his studio albums. As a general rule, only die-hard fans and obsessive collectors (often these two are mutually exclusive) should be getting excited over such an album yet the fervour surrounding and the staggering amount of tickets sold for his Wembley show this year suggests this jumble of songs will reach far more ears than expected.
As these songs are a patchwork of ideas collected over the last three years it’s hardly surprising that in places they feel somewhat young in their musical development. ‘England Keep My Bones’ was such a musical step forward for Turner both in lyrical focus but also musical subtly that songs such as ‘Rock N’ Roll Romance’ feel like they align themselves more with the no frills Frank Turner of ‘Love, Ire & Song’ than the musical tightness of ‘England Keep My Bones’. It is a credit to Turner’s song writing capabilities that a song as beautifully sparse as the aforementioned, which captures the emotional frailty of longing, can sit alongside his biting cover of Nirvana’s ‘On A Plain’.
The real joy of this album is hearing Turner working through ideas that gives us a glimpse down the eventual road that led to ‘England Keep My Bones’. The song ‘Sailor’s Boots’ would have fit perfectly into that album, with its emphasis on travelling and pioneering spirit, and many of these songs have little-to-no backing instrumentally except for voice and guitar. Far from feeling tedious or repetitive, each track seems special, and a highlight can be found in ‘Song For Eva Mae‘, in which Turner imparts some of his own wisdom upon his God-Daughter and openly admits his own failures.
The choice of covers, including everything from Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’ to NOFX‘s ‘Linoleum’ display all the different facets which have influenced Turner’s song writing, and this album will please all from those who were introduced to Turner at the Cambridge Folk Festival to those who have seen him in dingy bars.
‘The Second Three Years’ show the many faces of Frank Turner. These songs don’t feel merely thrown together to capitalise upon Turner’s success as many other rarities albums inevitably are, and each song holds its own intrinsic value, helping transcend far beyond a fans-only affair into one that will sit proudly in any collection.
CLARA CULLEN