In true Frank Turner style, Be More Kind is the title given to the 7th studio record, following last years Songbook; Turner’s collection of reworked greatest hits. Be More Kind is due for release on May 4th via Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor Records. Lifted from the record, album opener “1933” has been released and can be heard below.
Prior to the release of Be More Kind, Turner and co. are set to embark on ‘The Be More Kind Tour’ in April/May. Check out the mammoth list of live dates below.
The construction of the album began, unsurprisingly, while the band were touring America in 2016. Its inspiration is also a result of Turner’s experience in writing a concept record about women from the historical record who had been ignored. It was Clive James’ poem “Leçons Des Ténèbres” that changed the direction of the album however. On this, Turner says:
The line “I should have been more kind. It is my fate. To find this out, but find it out too late” devastated me the first time I read it. A lot of older, wiser people tend to say things like that. The things that come out in the wash at the end of a human life are the way you treated the people around you. In the modern world, that’s a lesson that all of us, myself included could do to learn.
Somewhere in the record, there’s a convergence of the ideas of personal and political, which is a central theme of the album. One of the driving themes of the album is empathy, even for your enemy. You should at least be able to inhabit the mental universe of the people you disagree with. If you can’t do that then how do you communicate with people other than through force of arms, which is something we all agree is a bad idea.
We’ve been told the record is a combination of universal anthems with raw emotion and the political and the personal, with the intricate folk and punk roar trademarks of Turner’s sound imbued with new, bold experimental shades.
Be More Kind has been produced by Austin Jenkins and Joshua Block (formerly of White Denim) and Florence And The Machine and Halsey collaborator Charlie Hugall.
Be More Kind Tour (with Arkells and The Homeless Gospel Choir)
April
- 13th – Manchester, Academy
- 15th – Dublin, The Academy
- 16th – Dublin, The Academy
- 18th – Belfast, The Limelight
- 20th – Aberdeen, The Garage
- 21st – Edinburgh, Liquid Room
- 22nd – Newcastle, O2 Academy
- 24th – Sheffield, O2 Academy
- 25th – Liverpool, O2 Academy
- 27th – Bristol, O2 Academy
- 28th – Exeter Uni, Great Hall
- 30th – Cambridge, orn Exchange
May
- 1st – Southampton, Guildhall
- 2nd – Southend Cliffs, Pavilion
- 4th – Leicester, O2 Academy
- 5th – Oxford, O2 Academy
- 8th – Hull, City Hall9th – Norwich, UEA
Tickets go on sale on 2nd Feb at 10AM. A special fan pre-sale is live now on Frank’s store.
Be More Kind tracklist:
- Don’t Worry
- 1933
- Little Changes
- Be More Kind
- Make America Great Again
- Going Nowhere
- Brave Face
- There She Is
- 21st Century Survival Blues
- Blackout
- Common Ground
- The Lifeboat
- Get It Right
Be More Kind is due for rease on May 4th via Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor Records.