Album Review: Down On Earth by Turnover
Album artwork for “Down On Earth” by Turnover.
Turnover is back with a new album only to disappoint fans by not making “Peripheral Vision” 2 Electric Boogaloo. For a decade, Turnover has been stuck in a shadow set up by their fans. Every release has become a hostage between their artistic growth and listeners' expectations. It doesn't matter how much jazzy pop is imbued into “Altogether” or how many psychedelic synths are layered into “Myself in the Way”, their fan base will always have one question: “Yeah, but is it like peripheral vision?”
This is truly the first comfortable-sounding Turnover album in a decade. Not comfortable with this album being safe, the band has burned their roots, no longer negotiating with their own legacy. This record comes after a ten-year celebration of “Peripheral Vision”, and rather than cashing in on nostalgia, they created an album on what made people connect with them in the first place.
“Down On Earth” picks from nearly every phase of the band's discography. The dream pop compositions are still here. The psychedelic guitar parts are all over this release, but unlike “Myself in the Way", which occasionally felt like it was disappearing into its own atmosphere, these songs have shape.
Wheelie For No One starts this album off with energy. It is melodic, sweet, and direct. Turnover dares you to reject the record with their manipulated vocals, strange textures, and intentionally disorientating structure. The band is intentionally throwing up a warning sign with this weird and wonderful track, setting the tone for a funky, fun tone from the start. The album finds some consistency in I’m Up, I’m Up and Pieces, balancing melody and melancholy in a way that feels natural. Continue the flow of the album with some of the strongest songwriting the band has given to their fans in years. A mature take on their emotions funneled through their dreamy vocals
Then you have tracks like Nightjar and I See You and Realize, which were strong singles to set up a buzz for the album, successfully bringing back their old and new styles throughout the identities of sound they curated. Shimmering guitars without sounding overly nostalgic, with relaxing grooves without being boring.
That is a major summary of this album. For years, Turnover experimentation felt like the band was sprinting away from their fans' expectations. “Down On Earth” feels like they have finally figured out how to incorporate every previous identity of themselves into one album. Production plays a massive part in the record, as they use their veteran live engineer Zac Montez, for their production rather than some of the band's old collaborators. The drums are free and full of life, and the guitars don't feel trapped behind a mountain of effect processing like past albums.
The youthful sadness of “Peripheral Vision”, “Magnolia”, and their self-titled EP is long gone. Rather than drowning in their own emotions, “Down to Earth” sounds like they have learned to live with those feelings. There are recurring themes of aging, burnout, loneliness, mortality, and acceptance. The lyrics themselves aren't a masterpiece, but more grounded than some of the abstract writing in post-peripheral vision albums.
Where “Down On Earth” struggles is the memorability, as a good chunk of the songs do morph into one another. The atmosphere of this album is there, but there aren't any monumental parts that spring out and demand a need for relisting. There isn't a huge blow-me-away single on “Down On Earth”, no career-defining song, but if you are looking for a start-to-finish album experience, this is the strongest Turnover album since “Peripheral Vision”.
For a band that's been spending the last decade floating in post-production and guitar pedals for a decade in dream pop daydreaming songs, they have parachuted back to the ground with “Down On Earth” and stuck their landing.
FFO: Men I Trust, DIIV, Beach Fossils, Soft Kill
SCORE: 7/10
“Down On Earth” is out now on all streaming platforms, released independently.
