Frank Turner – Polaroid Picture | EP review

Polaroid Picture marks Turner’s fifth studio EP, a good six years after Love Ire & Song was released to the joy of many an alternatively grungy sixteen-year-old (read: author, circa 2008). Since then, Frank Turner has gained some substantial hype and a solid group of fans.

The title track, Polaroid Picture, opens the record with an oddly pensive and sentimental tone. A decent track, its poetic lyrics seem marginally jarred against the crashing guitars of what appears to be Green Day, circa ’96. It sort of sounds like a Frank Turner standard has been backed by a band that has never heard of him before and only just been given the music.

The highlight of the album was the feline undertones of Plea from a Cat Named Virtute, simply thanks to its inclusion of moggies. One of the better covers on the record, this track is an odd homage to the original authors, The Weakerthans. This is followed by a somewhat unnecessary cover of Biffy Clyro’s Who’s Got a Match, which is ground-breakingly made over in the style of the original.

Polaroid Picture is not a bad album and, for the right audience, it provides a less marketed version of the musician you probably know and love. But, for the garden-variety listener, it is far from astonishing. An odd mish-mash of the fraying disused edges of previous records, it seems to be the sonic equivalent of a patchwork quilt.

Part of the joy in following a musician’s work is having the privilege of tracking their artistic progression. Sadly there appears to be little of this in Turner’s work, as we are served the sound we have heard since the beginning. Potentially ideal for the die-hard Turnerites, Polaroid Picture leaves little to the imagination, either lyrically or musically.

Phoebe Person

Polaroid Picture is released on 3^rd February 2014. For further information or to order the album visit Frank Turner’s website here.