Folk-punk singer Frank Turner has today announced his 10th studio album and shared a defiant new single from it.
Undefeated will be released via Xtra Mile Recordings on 3 May, with Do One the latest song released, following on from recent single No Thank You For The Music.
It is the follow-up to his first UK No 1 album, 2022’s FTHC (reviewed here), and is the result of his decision to step away from major labels to work as an independent artist again.
Do One sees Turner and his band firing on all cylinders, with a supremely catchy message of defiance – “I’m still standing up and there’s nothing you can do!”.
“Do One is the last song I wrote for the new album, and the first song on that album, as well as the first single,” he says. “So it’s a summation of what I’m trying to say with this record, a record about survival and defiance, but also one with a sense of fun and self-deprecation.
“Nineteen years into my solo career, I’m still standing up and putting out some of my best work. It feels good.
“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.”
As usual, the record was entirely written by Turner, but this is the first album he’s produced himself, recorded in the home studio he and his wife, Jessica Guise, share on Mersea Island, Essex. It features his live band: Ben Lloyd (guitar), Tarrant Anderson (bass), Callum Green (drums) and Matt Nasir (piano).
The release of Undefeated will, of course, see this punk-rock road-warrior do what he does best – tour with the tenacity and intense schedules he’s known for, but with even bigger ambitions – which will be revealed in due course as he nears his 3,000th gig.
Undefeated can be pre-ordered HERE.
