Album Review: Frank Turner - Last Minutes And Lost Everythings

An honest and passionate troubadour from England, Frank Turner quickly found a home for his singalongs in Australia, and this country seems to have embraced the singer/songwriter with gusto. Each tour has seen Frank play to more people, and in March next year he'll perform to his biggest crowds yet as part of Bluesfest.

To make it easy for the people who may not have known Turner when he was in punk band Million Dead or when he first started out on his own, a highlights package has been put together for local release. This collection casts Turner in a similar light to a songwriter like Tim Rogers; self-deprecating, wry, forever exploring his craft and what it means to be a touring musician. The beauty of Turner's writing is his ability to tap into universal experiences by telling very specific stories, as he does in Dan's Song or Long Live The Queen.

The music Turner builds around his poetry, whether acoustic in his earlier work or with the band as things started to grow in scope, is mostly simple and vibrant and made for singing along to. Because while putting Frank Turner on at home and shuffling around the kitchen or singing along on a road trip is fun, nothing makes these songs sound better than when yours is one of many voices raised in song in a dark, sweaty pub with a couple of beers under your belt and Turner telling his amusing anecdotes and flashing the grin of someone having his lyrics sung back at him with quite a lot of gusto.