Album review: Frank Turner, Tape Deck Heart (Polydor)

Frank Turner, Tape Deck Heart (Polydor)

“We're all broken boys and girls at heart,” claims Frank Turner in “The Fisher King Blues”, pinpointing the tight focus of Tape Deck Heart, in which bouts of rollicking Mumfordry help cauterise the blunt exposure of emotional scars.

Several songs deal with romantic catastrophe, from the brutal break-up of “Anymore” and “Tell Tale Signs” to the regrets of “Recovery” and the self-lacerating “Plain Sailing Weather”. It's punk-folk pop with its heart on its sleeve and urgency overwhelming reflection, closer to Green Day than, say, Leonard Cohen. But Turner remains grittily appealing nonetheless.

Download: Recovery; Good & Gone; Losing Days