Turnstile - GLOW ON Review

Album: GLOW ON

Artist: Turnstile

Genre: #Punk #Rock #Alternative

Sub-Genres: #PostHardcore #DreamPop

Label: Roadrunner

Non-Airable Tracks: none :)

Description: Turnstile's third album, GLOW ON, comes three years after the band's last album, Time & Space, which positioned them as one of hardcore's most exciting bands. Songs like Real Thing, Generator, and Moon showcased the band's diversity in sound palette while still creating high energy tracks.

Going into GLOW ON as a fan of Turnstile's earlier work, I was not expecting the band to undertake such an extreme change in sound, but once I got into the record, I could not stop listening! Turnstile continue to bring the energy and passion that they have with previous albums, but they bring along new sounds very reminiscent of dream pop and similar sonic territory. This record, in a lot of ways, reminds me of Title Fight's 2015 record Hyperview, where another notable hardcore band made the shift into shoegaze. Hyperview, however, is largely considered a mediocre record in Title Fight's catalogue, leaving a stain on the trend of punk-goes-shoegaze records for me personally. However, Turnstile proves that punk bands discovering new sounds don't have to ditch the integrity of their past work.

Turnstile's experimentation of GLOW ON pays off big time as they are able to craft a unique listening experience that feels certain to please the punk crowd as well as a mainstream alternative rock audience. Not only are the songs more spacey in tone, but the variety in rhythm on songs like DON'T PLAY and BLACKOUT make the whole album exciting beyond the flashy new guitar sounds. Lead singer Brendan Yates takes to singing over his usual shouting a lot more on this record, and his voice is the perfectly raw and energetic to contrast with a record that is very "clean" for hardcore standards. The songs all radiate this sense of radical positivity within me. A lot of the songs carry very sweet and romantic messages which only add to the dreaminess of this album. The inclusion of Dev Hynes (AKA Blood Orange) on three of the album's tracks (ENDLESS, ALIEN LOVE CALL, and LONELY DEZIRES) is, like much of this record, unexpected but welcome because it works so well. If you would have told me in 2018 that Blood Orange and Turnstile would collaborate, I would be scratching my head as to how that would even sound, but Dev and the guys in Turnstile have such a good energy across the three tracks that this collaboration feels natural.

Sounds Like:

1. Title Fight

2. Fiddlehead

3. Trapped Under Ice

Recommended Tracks:

1. ​BLACKOUT

2. T.L.C (TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION)

3. ALIEN LOVE CALL (feat. Blood Orange)

Reviewer’s Name: George Romero

Date of Review: September 15, 2021