'This time less politics and more personal input' must have thought the London-based Frank Turner. On his fifth full-length, Tape Deck Heart, we hear a predominantly cheerful singer / songwriter. The record opens with Recovery, an ideal song to pick up again after a broken relationship. The following song sounds equally hopeful and for a moment Tape Deck Heart seems to be a summery feel-good album.
But after The Way I Tend To Be, Turner's mood changes drastically and mainly dark themes are sung about. On Good And Gone he lashes out at American society and yet again that critical, political note can be heard there. Tell Tale Signs is more beautiful, in which he shows himself to be extremely vulnerable. As Tape Deck nears Heart's end, the cheerful Turner can hardly be heard. Songs like Anymore and Broken Radio are covered with a heavy blanket of melancholy and depression. These are performed with so much conviction that it seems almost unimaginable that the first three songs on Tape Deck Heart come from the same man. (BvdV)more
