Three years on, unsurprisingly, from The First Three Years Frank Turner has once again got together all those B-sides, bonus tracks and covers that haven’t been a part of the albums he’s released in the meantime and thrown them all together in this, The Second Three Years.

Now hardcore Frank Turner fans may well find they already own a fair few of these. For example, “Rock and Roll Romance” has been floating around on various EPs and singles for quite a while now, and several others have done similar. However, for fans that don’t get obsessive over owning everything, and in fact aren’t actually 100% sure what a B-side is, this album puts them all together so you don’t have to worry about missing anything.

Some of the songs on this album are testimony to just how good Frank Turner’s output during this period has been. For example, the gorgeous “Song for Eva Mae”, which sees Frank reflecting on being named godfather of a close friend’s newly born daughter, could sit happily on some of the best albums of the year. Even his cover of “Last Christmas” isn’t completely horrible, which, when it comes to Christmas songs, has to be considered a compliment. On the flip side of the coin, however, it’s only natural that an album of this nature is going to have a couple of songs that fall flat. Which, with his cover of Take That’s “The Greatest Day”, Frank does. However, you almost feel he makes up for this on his original covers of NOXF’s “Linoleum”, and Nirvana’s “On a Plain”, which even though they may not endear themselves to fans of those bands, have their own charm.

With Frank Turner’s main studio albums becoming bigger and bigger deals, with more and more people involved in them, The Second Three Years almost pulls you back to remember how he started out. A guy with an acoustic guitar who loves the music he writes. Sure, not everything on this is brilliant, but you can tell that he’s enjoyed singing every single word of it.