Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed

• 25th Nov 2009

An intro to really get you up and moving, Frank Turner’s latest single begins with a bang. Upbeat, poppy and full of life, Poetry of the Deed’s sound is as punchy as the opening lyrics which paint a picture true to the song’s attitude: music oozing from every surface, infecting all those it meets. The verse could do with a bit more melodic variation, but at this stage you’re more inclined to think it’s building rather than coasting, and the lyrics only support this as they spread and grow across your mind, “coming out of the walls, coming up through the streets,” and hitting you like a slap in the face.

The chorus springs out suddenly and is passionately sung, its pitch elevating the mood and heightening the attitude so that you can’t help but get caught up in the mood of carefree self-congratulation. Although there is something disturbing about the image “we scratch until we’re drunk, we drink until we bleed”…. perhaps not quite “exactly what this country needs?” But if you avoid getting bogged down with the frankly bizarre lyrics, an all round decently hard-hitting chorus.

The passion keeps up well into the second chorus but you can’t really speak for any variation. The song lacks graduation, and development; the building we were hoping for in the first verse reaches a premature plateau, and the second verse really isn’t anything different from the first; the passion becomes misplaced and wasted. It’s a shame, because in their own right each chapter of this song is full of beans. There’s a nifty little bridge which comes across as a musical assault on the mundane with its forceful drumming and strong melody but it’s torn down by what follows.

The ending of Poetry of the Deed is starkly different from the rest, and it’s really not to the song’s benefit. Sounding more like an indie summer song than the invasive powerhouse that it follows, it unfortunately leaves the closing lyrics of the song ringing in your ears as it trails off. You wonder what happened to the song began with such oomph and force that sees its final words serving as such an appropriate summary – Turner’s martyrish brag that “we’ll burn like a beacon and then we’ll be gone” sadly sums it up for him, not how he intended by a long shot. Must try harder.