Frank Turner - Positive Songs For Negative People

Well well. I was beginning to despair. Whilst I've come across some great albums this year (by actively seeking out new stuff) only one or two had really hit the spot for me (Public Service Broadcasting and Django Django). Also, Apple Music hadn't really thrown anything my way that had caught my imagination ... and then came Frank Turner. New to me again (but of course checking back, he's been mentioned on here twice before) he's got a brand new album out, Positive Songs For Negative People. I read a little about him and at first thought 'Eton Old Boy - eugh', but why should that mean someone can't write good songs - of course it doesn't. There's a review of this album in the Guardian (where it only gets three stars!) here Frank Turner: Positive Songs for Negative People review, and it would seem that I seem to like music that doesn't demand much from the listener. Well, whatever it might say about me, I'm prepared to declare loud and clear that I think that this is a cracking album - just my kind of thing. Have a listen. There are links to a couple of tracks in the Guardian review.

Public Service Broadcasting and Maccabees

I remember the cards you used to get in CDs that let you sign up to band's mailing lists. They'd ask you how often you bought CDs and what your other favourite bands. Presumably so they could get support act ideas. These two bands probably wouldn't have featured together on many of those cards but I bet they share some fans. Public Service Broadcasting remixing Marks To Prove It by Maccabees seems a genius move if you ask me. Does it work? Judge for yourself.

If the above embedded link doesn't work, try this instead http://www.vevo.com/watch/GBUV71500658

The Other Side

I have been (impatiently) waiting for the release of Public Service Broadcasting's latest offering ever since I heard the excellent 'Gagarin' and learned that the next album would be a concept based around the Superpowers' race for space in the 60s and 70s. I was expecting tales straight out of the library text books of my childhood, and I wasn't disappointed - Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin, Apollo 11 all feature - but the track that has taken my imagination, emotion and breath away is 'The Other Side'.

It describes the moments on Christmas Eve 1968 when the astronauts of Apollo 8 became the first humans to orbit the moon and therefore see the dark side. The point at which the craft disappears into radio silence as it traverses the other side is very powerful and second only to the euphoria of the re-emergence 45 minutes later.

Whether you like electronic music or not, this is the most powerful and emotive thing I've heard in a long while. Have a listen to it. Wear headphones, close your eyes and imagine you are there, at the vanguard of human endeavour. Imagine what's going through the minds of the astronauts and the controller on the ground in Huston, who narrates the events as they unfold.

Top stuff, Public Service Broadcasting, top stuff.