Wednesday 11 April 2018

Single Review - Frank Turner - Make America Great Again

Hello again guys, I’ve just got to 500 reads on my blog in only a few days, this is amazing to me and I’d just like to say a big thanks and hope you all have enjoyed reading as much as I have writing. Today I’m going to be reviewing the new single from Frank Turner, ‘Make America Great Again’.

Frank Turner is a singer songwriter from Winchester who has spent the past ten plus years touring the world with his unique brand of punk troubadour ditties. Frank’s newest album ‘Be More Kind’ is due to drop sometime in May, and ‘Make America Great Again’ is the second single from the record, following on from the absolutely incredible ‘Blackout’ that got its first outing in March.

The song is an acidic bittersweet song about the current state of the leaders of the free world, with Frank opening up by apologising for his accent and the cheekiness of offering an Englishman’s opinion on the goings-on over the pond. The use of Trump’s ‘M.A.G.A’ campaign slogan to throw some serious shade on the beliefs systems of his supporters and staff is a stroke of genius. The first line of the chorus “Let’s make America great again, by making racists ashamed again” sets out Frank’s stall early and the song goes deeper from there. The second verse is quick to clear up that Frank’s personal interactions with Americans have been largely positive but he’s worried about the President and his policies and the rapid new acceptance of racism and bigotry dressed up as patriotism. The ending makes reference to Ellis Island, the small enclave off of Manhattan where new immigrants into the country would be processed in times gone by. Frank goes on to hypothesise about a perfect country where ‘nobody can be Illegal’ before reminding people to look after their friends, check in on each other and ‘Make America Great Again’.

Set against the political backdrop in America at the moment the song has been released at an absolutely perfect time and I can see it picking up a lot of popularity with American Liberals, however I’d love to see how this is recieved in places like Texas. Frank regularly tours America and I’ll be keeping my ears open for some first hand tales of how this is recieved. The song is a bit more formulaic and ‘poppy’ than a lot of Frank’s previous output, but that seems to have been a theme on the songs I’ve heard from the new record so far. I think if Frank’s music becomes more popular in the mainstream he can get his messages out to more people. This album has definitely got more political statements on it than the last few of Frank’s records so if he can use his platform to teach more people to ‘Be More Kind’, then I’m all in.

Thx for reading. In a world that has decided that it’s going to lose it’s mind, be more kind, my friends. Try to be more kind.

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