Turnstile double-down on NEVER ENOUGH

To get the obvious out of the way, NEVER ENOUGH doesn’t sound much like any hardcore record you’ll hear this year. Although Turnstile came up in Baltimore’s thriving scene and their roots in the genre run deep, as hardcore has exploded in popularity in the past few years Turnstile has steered clear of its most aggressive signifiers. They have spun off into a lane of their own and tempered their sound with a dreamy indie undercurrent, culminating in the massive success of their 2021 album GLOW ON.

Unless you are brand new to Turnstile, it is difficult to hear NEVER ENOUGH outside of the context of its predecessor. Some of this is natural when a band is trying to follow up an acclaimed record that broke them through to a wider audience. But simultaneously, Turnstile does little to lean away from the comparisons. The similarities are easy to spot, to the point where a handful of melodies, synth passages, and cadences seemingly correspond directly to elements from GLOW ON. The synthy twinkle of “NEVER ENOUGH” sounds incredibly close to “MYSTERY”. The shouted refrain on “LOOK OUT FOR ME” recalls “FLY AGAIN”, while the rhythms on “DREAMING” sound pulled straight out of “DON’T PLAY" – at least until blasts of horns join the guitars.

These similarities aren’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you are one of the many people who loved GLOW ON. In fact, there is a strong argument that NEVER ENOUGH contains the most interesting expansions of the Turnstile formula to date, building out the band’s sound with more fully realized sonic turns. The playful horn riffs on “DREAMING” and the stuttering digitized fakeouts of “DULL” smartly blend the band’s exploratory streak with the massive guitars and arena-ready hooks they’re known for. Similarly, the blistering charge of “SUNSHOWER” unexpectedly settles into a dreamy flute and synth soundscape, while “LOOK OUT FOR ME” transforms fully into a blissful Baltimore house beat in what might just be the highlight of the album.

The band seems to take delight in hanging a hard left turn to keep everything fresh, and that restlessness largely works in their favour, even if not all of these detours lead somewhere interesting. “LIGHT DESIGN” ends up blending into the background, especially sandwiched between the far more exciting “DREAMING” and “DULL”, while the synthy balladry of “MAGIC MAN” is an atmospheric but rather sedate finish to the record.

Spread amongst all of these detours, NEVER ENOUGH also takes time to play to the band’s strengths. “SOLE” and “BIRDS” prove the band are still capable of absolutely tearing through a track, piling the riffs and rocket-propelled drumming on top of ridiculously catchy shout-along chants. Circle-pit-ready moments abound in smaller doses like the careening double-time first half of “SUNSHOWER” or the massive howl that Brendan Yates builds to on “SLOW DIVE.” Meanwhile, NEVER ENOUGH is brilliantly sequenced and impeccably produced. Everything sounds crystalline and sleek in the synth-laden moments, only for the guitars to crush the quiet with a towering stomp when the full band kicks in. The shifts all feel seamless, making for some all-timer pairings like the sprawling title track and “SOLE” or the riffy “SLOW DIVE” and sweetly melodic “TIME IS HAPPENING”.

Most of all, it is exciting to have a rock band that can operate at Turnstile’s level of popularity and still maintain a credible streak as ferocious performers and talented songwriters. They are one of the few rock acts today who are both headlining major festivals and releasing music that could honestly be billed as some of the best of their career. As someone who was lucky enough to see them at their Wyman Park Dell hometown show a few months ago, any initial worries fans have about the new material will likely be quelled when the band kicks into gear live, feeding off the energy of a crowd of thousands. For those who are already on board with Turnstile’s shifting tides, I suspect NEVER ENOUGH will be received like the Room on Fire to GLOW ON’s Is This It? – a stylistically aligned sister album that some staunch defenders will swear is better than its classic predecessor. However, if NEVER ENOUGH proves one thing, it's that Turnstile has a bright blue horizon ahead of them. The sky is the limit now.