No Man's Land

Turner's creativity overrides the defects. In a certain way, the album's blemishes highlight its other charms in the way a beauty mark may positively accent the rest of a person's features. The record and its concept should be applauded for their shared aspirations and accomplishments.

Admittedly, he plays to his strengths here more than in recent memory but again, some songs do just taper off like the reworked "Silent Key". Nonetheless, if you're a Frank fan, you'll enjoy, and if you're a cynic, well you might just find that there's not as much to hate here as you thought there'd be.

The album is far from perfect, but it is still temping to describe it as a welcome return to form for a songwriter who has lately ventured closer to fluffy indie-pop than the biting folk that made his name. The best of the songs on No Man’s Land mix dense historiography with accessible catchiness.

It is an interesting concept -that could have become a beacon for the perspectives of (male) feminists in music- that failed because it was executed poorly a few too many times.

If the music could hold its own, No Man’s Land might make for a more tolerable listen. But the instrumentation is plodding and occasionally appropriative, while elsewhere there is unfortunate evidence of Turner’s limited vocal range.