Sleep Is for the Week [Tenth Anniversary Edition]

Following up on his debut EP Campfire Punkrock, Bahrain-born, London-based acoustic singer/songwriter Frank Turner makes his full-length bow with 2007's Sleep is for the Week. Former leader of the political punks Million Dead, Turner's solo records are more along the lines of very early Billy Bragg: social-minded rants and more personal lyrics performed mostly on acoustic guitar with minimal accompaniment. Turner is not Bragg's equal as a wit: indeed, an almost painful earnestness permeates songs like "Father's Day," a standard-issue generation gap song culminating in the my-how-perceptive line "For better or for worse, I am turning into you." It's not all as wet as that, however: the rueful "Ladies of London Town" is a self-deprecating dating song, and "A Decent Cup of Tea" comes closest to Bragg's knack for short story-like lyrical detail. The album's twin highlights are "Once We Were Anarchists," a wry tune about the passions of youth colliding with the real world, and the simply charming "Back in the Day," a tune about hardcore punk's glory days, played on the banjo, that recalls the more recent, folky side of Half Man Half Biscuit. ~ Stewart Mason