Review of 'Never Enough' by Turnstile

The Baltimore band are back with more jagged riffs, anthemic vocals and perhaps a few too many ambient interludes.

Turnstile are the world’s most popular hardcore band right now, and it’s partly because they’re not wholly a hardcore band. Catchy arena rock choruses, atmospheric dreampop sections and groovy samba-ish percussion make their sound both more unique and more accessible than your average Converge clone. At the same time, they’re still able to satisfy hardcore purists by delivering plenty of aggressive thrashy moments and badass breakdowns. Their live shows are reportedly wild (why haven’t I seen them live yet?) and include plenty of moshing, crowd-diving and even cases of attendees pooping in the pit (oh, yes that’s why).  

I gave their last album Glow On a glowing review. In fact, I loved that record so much it was my 2021 AOTY. Part of me wanted Turnstile to stick with the same winning formula on this new record, while part of me wanted to see them doing something different. Double whammy lead single ‘Seein’ Stars/Birds’ was a mix of groovy sparkly dreampop and raucous angry hardcore that suggested this album was going to be more of the same. But then the band dropped ‘Look Out For Me’ – a 7 minute hardcore song that transitions into EDM at the end. Were we about to get a Turnstile rave album?

For better or worse, no - ‘Look Out For Me’ is the only moment on Never Enough where you’ll want to get your glowsticks out. This album is otherwise Glow On 2.0: a surfeit of chant-along bellowed vocals anthemic to rival the Foo Fighters, dreamy chords pretty enough to rival Tame Impala and contrasting razor-sharp riffs that are heavy enough to rival Metallica.

Do I love it as much as Glow On? Almost – but I think the pacing lets this album down a bit. There are lots of ambient interludes connecting these tracks, which have their moments of brilliance (the swooping bass at the end of title track ‘Never Enough’ is very cool), but at points kill the momentum.

However, despite its stilted moments, this is still likely to be one of the most fun rock records released this year. Turnstile still have a sound that is very fresh, while also being very infectious. While most of the celebrated rock acts nowadays are complex art rock bands (Squid and BCNR being prime examples), Turnstile show that you can still make rock that is relatively straightforward, but not derivative.  

★★★★☆

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