Freeborn Frank Turner

- Nick Gillespie

BE MORE KIND is the seventh studio album by the British singer-songwriter Frank Turner. The title is based on a Clive James poem published in The New Yorker, and like many of Turner’s previous works, the record blends elaborate folk storytelling with a punk rock attitude, overtly political themes, and pleas for social decency. With song titles like “Make America Great Again” and “21st Century Survival Blues,” Be More Kind is an album full of literary, political rock ’n’ roll. It has also been a critical and commercial hit, pulling rave reviews at publications such as NME, topping the British charts, and rising to 90th on Billboard’s top-200 album list.

Turner has described himself as both a libertarian and a classical liberal—ideological descriptors that are rare in his corner of the music world—and has reportedly received death threats for talking candidly about his politics.

In June, Reason’s Nick Gillespie spoke with Turner about his new album, his idiosyncratic politics, punk rock’s liberal slant, and why the most important debate isn’t between left and right but between authoritarian and libertarian.

Reason: Your album is called Be More Kind. What do we need to “be more kind” about in England and America these days?