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Though Frank Turner is still a young buck in the folk-punk game—he turns 28 in December—he's accomplished an awful lot in the past few years. The British songwriter forsook a fledgling career fronting punk bands to write detailed, contemplative pub pop and stirring folk-punk anthems with stylistic nods to Ted Leo, Against Me! and—while Turner says he's a only recent convert to his music—Billy Bragg. Turner's songs—tales of drinking, loving and aging against a backdrop of stupid pop culture—would overwhelm listeners with pop sentimentality if they didn't ring so true. Turner is meta, often tackling songs about the not-so-glamorous side of playing music, but more importantly he's a voice of earnestness in the age of irony. On Poetry of the Deed, Turner's third album in as many years, he pairs characteristically detailed lyrics with a newly layered approach at melodic exploration. His career should be fascinating to watch over the next few years.
“I’ve never been taught about songwriting. I’ve never really had a technique. And I often feel a bit like a schizophrenic serial killer after a massacre, where I’ve blacked out—because I sort of wake up and these songs are done and I don’t really remember how they happened.”
WWeek 2015