Love Ire & Song, Joe

Consider the video of the Joker in the hospital.

No, seriously, consider it. Think about it in a non-ironic, non-meme way for maybe the first time in your life. "Introduce a little anarchy" and "it's all according to plan" and "attempting to control their little worlds." What do we make of these ideas? I think you'd be a moron (or a legitimately dangerous person) if you were taking the ideas that the Joker is spouting here at face value, and yet, it's fun to consider them anyway, ya know? Kinda hold them in our hands, turn them over, examine them a little bit. You're not trying to justify an attempt at murdering a mayor of a large metropolitan city, but you're wondering whether there is any truth to anything this wacko is saying. More as a philosophical exercise, ya know?

In the same way as the Joker, I consider a lot of what Frank Turner has to say to be a fun philosophical exercise as opposed to be taken at face value. I'm thinking about the title track as the biggest example. There is a big idea at the heart of this thing, and it's an idea that I've pondered for about as long as I've been able to seriously call myself an adult. Can you still, as you get older, be idealistic about our future as human beings, even when life's cold hard realities beat you down? I agree that it gets harder to see the young bright fiery person you used to be as he recedes in the rear-view mirror, but I disagree with the lashing out at progressive ideals, but I agree that it's good to try to remember the passion you once felt, but I disagree with the sarcastic undertones of that chorus when it finally hits... but agreement and disagreement aren't really the points here. Because this is an album review, not a review on how of a moron you have to be to call yourself a Libertarian. "Love Ire & Song" says a whole bunch of interesting things and presents them in such a way that I feel the passion rising within me, and that, I would argue, is unequivocally a great thing.

Great, great album. Most of the songs are hits, or at least should be. It's easy to say that the music is catchy, because it is, but the thing that pushes this album over the top is the idea that Frank Turner is touching on some tricky subjects. Not tricky in a political way—this isn't Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers—but more tricky in a deeply emotional way. Those catchy verses and choruses present us with well-drawn characters for whom we feel an instant affection, which draws us in, and then only after a couple listens are you wondering, hmmm, is this right? Is this meant to be empathized with or is Frank Turner the villain narrator or is it in that deep wide gray area in between? "Photosynthesis" touches on the same subject as "Love Ire & Song," about growing up and giving up, with a chorus that, yes, burns in your brain due to catchiness, but also makes you do a double take, like, okay, "I won't sit down, I won't shut up, I won't grow up"... is this how we should be framing this? Again, this review isn't a discussion about the answers, it's a review about an album that dares to elicit the question in the first place, and I sure as fuck love asking that question, and so this is fucking catnip to me, this fucking album. Loved it.

You can pull those questions from any song you hear. "Reasons Not to Be an Idiot" kinda seems a little too boomer-energy for me in it's "just go outside! everything will be okay if you get out of the house!" but still, tell me you weren't thrilled every time that chorus hit. "Long Live the Queen" is emotionally devastating and almost brings me to tears and I don't have any doubt that it's real and that makes it more devastating, and but I'd also bet my paycheck on the fact that one of the titular character's family members feels a little iffy that Frank Turner took it upon himself to memorialize her in this way. "Substitute" states "music is my substitute for love" which seems incredibly sad but flippant in the way that he's presenting this idea through a really passionate love song on the acoustic guitar. "To Take You Home" has a classical-folk feel that took me a minute to get into and then a quick hour to get really into, and grapples with some really interesting and almost icky ideas of love and possessiveness. Pull back, and you're hearing one of the best folk-rock records we've been graced with in this club. Push forward, and you're like Harvey Dent in the hospital bed, looking on with one eye wide open, desperately trying to parse through all these ideas in real time and trying to determine which are true and which are false and which are right and which are wrong and now all of a sudden you have a loaded gun in you're hand and the album ends.

So you start back at the beginning. We're all lovers and we're losers. We're all dogs chasing cars, unsure what to do when we finally catch up. We're all just wondering about life and trying to hold onto that wonder as we get older like it's water through our cupped hands.

GRADE: 4.5 pukes out of 5