Frank Turner Delivers New Single “Letters”

Today Frank Turner has released his brand new single, Letters, that is the latest track to be taken from his upcoming tenth album, Undefeated, that is due out on the 3rd May via Xtra Mile Recordings. Finding the sweet spot between youthful outspokenness and surviving midlife’s challenges, Undefeated is a record that explores both emotionally compelling topics and lighter reflections on those troubles that eventually come to most of us. Who you are versus who you wanted to be in your youth; life-altering love; fading friendships; wistful nostalgia; the mental fallout and political consequences that still linger from the pandemic era; and the more prosaic issue of persistent backache.

“”Letters” is a song that I’ve been working on for a long time; in some ways I’ve been writing it since a genuine pen-friendship of mine dried up when I was a kid, when the mix-tapes stopped coming through the post. It’s a song about communication and its breakdown, about nostalgia for teenage romance, and about how reassessing those things as an adult can be the start of a healing process. There are no clichés about the difficult 10th album, so in some ways, that’s a liberating statement. But at the same time, I have a duty to justify writing and releasing a 10th album. That’s a lot of records for anybody. Also, I’m 42. Which is not a sexy, rock’n’roll age. But all through my career, I’ve been interested in writers like Loudon Wainwright III or The Hold Steady, people who write about adulthood, essentially.” (Frank Turner)

While thematically Undefeated is informed by this time in life, sonically it’s full of echoes to influences that Frank has touched upon at various moments in his kaleidoscopic career. It switches from Black Flag to Counting Crows, from Descendents to The Pogues, via Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg. Its freewheeling nature is reflective not only of his new-found independence, but also of the creative environment he found himself in. As usual, it was entirely written by himself, but this is the first album that he produced himself, recorded in the home studio that he and his wife, Jessica Guise, share on Mersea Island, Essex. The release of Undefeated will of course see this punk-rock road-warrior tour with the tenacity and intense schedules that he’s renowned for, but with even bigger ambitions that will be revealed in due course as he nears his 3000th gig. But for now, anticipate the new album: a typically energising, literate, playful and provocative set from a musician who remains Undefeated after a quarter of a century in the game.