English folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner has announced the release of his "angry" tenth album, Undefeated, due for release this May.
Undefeated was written solely by Turner - nothing new there - but for the first time, he's produced an album himself.
He found inspiration in longtime influences Black Flag, Counting Crows, Descendents, The Pogues, Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg and recorded the album with his live band, The Sleeping Souls: Ben Lloyd (guitar), Tarrant Anderson (bass), Callum Green (drums) and Matt Nasir (piano).
The album features the already-released single No Thank You For The Music, and today, fans can hear the official first single, Do One.
A song likely remembered by fans who attended Turner's recent Australian tour and heard it before its release, Do One begins acoustically before exploding into a full-band party at the chorus. Sporting singalong verses and chorus melodies, it's the perfect, energising way to ring in the new album. You can watch the music video below.
On Do One, Turner explained in a press release, "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. 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.
"19 years into my solo career, I'm still standing up and putting out some of my best work. It feels good."
Do One follows No Thank You For The Music (also played live in Australia before its release), where Turner sings, "Now I'm surprised to report that as I enter my forties, I've returned to being an angry man."
Undefeated comes after Turner achieved his first-ever UK #1 album in 2022's FTHC and soundtracks a period of independence, where he returned "back home" to a global independent label setup - "still with Xtra Mile, of course".
Undefeated discusses midlife challenges - persistent back pain, love, keeping friendships alive, nostalgia, examining life post-pandemic period of COVID-19 and more. Turner added, "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."
Undefeated will be released via Xtra Mile Recordings on Friday, 3 May. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.
