Frank Turner - 'Sleep Is For The Week' (Xtramile) Released 08/01/07

As frontman for Million Dead, Frank Turner broke the hearts of music lovers across the country when he announced the band were to split in 2005. Since then he's been heading out on his own, with just an acoustic guitar to help him out. It's a far cry from the rocking hardcore band he used to tour with. Sing alongs, jingly-jangly guitars, banjos and harmonicas all join in the folky numbers - it all seems a long way away from the music his audience is used to hearing. Of course, this shouldn't really be a problem - it's obviously Turner's own choice what kind of songs he wants to record. But the point is, had he not been "Frank Turner from Million Dead", would magazines like Kerrang! really be tripping over their own feet in their rush to praise this? Doubtful.

That doesn't mean there's not things that should be praised here.Turner's talent for spinning tales of the every day comes across very well. 'A Decent Cup of Tea' is a lament to unrequited love. It's that relationship we can all relate to - the friend who cries on our shoulders but never realises how we really feel. As the payoff goes, "I slip this information into all our conversations, but she never seems to listen, she never seems to see." In 'Father's Day', he tells the story of cutting his own mowhawk in at the age of seventeen, another tale that should ring bells with anyone who's ever found themselves in the midst of a scene.

Frank Turner will always be guaranteed of a fanbase - one who have already embraced this new style of his. That much is evident from the last track, 'Ballad of Me and My Friends', which was recorded at a live show last year. Through the song the audience cheer and belt out the words to accompany him, showing that Turner is just as adored as he was at the height of his Million Dead days. So in the end it doesn't matter whether the rest of the world buys his new alt-folk act. But, luckily, there might be enough on this album to start convincing them, too.