Turnover – Peripheral Vision (2015)

Turnover – Peripheral Vision

Reinvention is the spice of life it seems, if by “reinvention” you mean “abandoning everything that made you unique.” For the Virginia Beach outfit Turnover that seems to be the case on their latest album, Peripheral Vision. Turnover’s previous recordings such as their 2011 self-titled EP and 2013’s Magnolia bore a strong pop punk influence and the band had much in common with their peers Citizen and Title Fight. For Peripheral Vision however, the band sought it best to ditch the spiky punk for a more subdued and inoffensive breed of light guitar pop.  Opening track “Cutting My Fingers Off” is a catchy little tune, with a swift surf rock beat and some melancholic sounding guitar that sets the mood nicely. “New Scream” strums along at a hurried pace, while fluffy guitar chords abound with glee. Lead singer Austin Getz’s voice is layered in so much syrupy reverb that you’d be forgiven for thinking your headphones are faulty. “Take My Head” seems like a breath of fresh air after the lazy strumming of the past few tracks, opening with some mild distortion, before sadly descending into the insipid twee balladry of the previous tracks.

The majority of the tracks on Peripheral Vision belong to the disposable, breathy school of indie pop which seems to have become a cliche in the past few years. Once you’ve heard one track, you’ve probably heard it done better by a multitude of fellow-minded artists. “Dizzy On The Comedown” sounds like a rejected DIIV B-side, while. Half the time Turnover can’t even decide what audience they’re trying to target. “Humming” has the kind of descending twinkly riff reminiscent of most of Topshelf Records current roster, whereas the drumming and vocals sound like such a pathetic attempt at aping Real Estate, you begin to wonder whether they simply conducted market research amongst a group of Tumblr users in order to determine which trendy bands to ride the coattails of.

Much like Title Fight’s Hyperview from earlier in the year, Peripheral Vision sounds like an attempt for Turnover to branch their audience out of the pop punk niche, and into a more indie-friendly territory. However, unlike Hyperview, Peripheral Vision sounds much less genuine in its approach and much more like a case of ‘follow-the-leader’. “Dizzy On The Comedown” sounds like Turnover listened to five minutes of a Beach Fossils album and thought it’d be in their best interests to simply cash in on that groups approach. Peripheral Vision is certainly a pleasant enough listen, but there’s simply not enough substance here to sustain repeated listens. It’s a great little Summer record and would make the perfect soundtrack for warm nights and lazy days alike. However if depth is what you’re looking for, you won’t find much of it here I’m afraid.

6/10

Title Fight – Hyperview (2015)

Title Fight – Hyperview

Maturation is a disease that afflicts plenty of bands, and quite often causes them to go down the road of mediocre albums and incur change of audience real fast. Nowhere is this more evident than on Title Fight’s latest album, Hyperview. Back in 2011, Title Fight made their name with their debut album Shed, released on the hardcore label SideOneDummy. Shed was a speedy little pop punk album that bore quite a strong hardcore influence, akin to bands such as Lifetime or Have Heart and it captured the hearts of critics around the United States. Shed wasn’t a huge commercial success by any means, but it did allow Title Fight to develop quite a reputation in the American punk scene. Their follow-up album Floral Green ditched a lot of the hardcore trappings and contained strong alternative rock and shoegaze overtones, which diluted their sound quite a bit. However, it still had the same fiery punk spirit and gritty production of their early work in order to satisfy their fans.

For Hyperview, however, Title Fight have mostly ditched whatever semblance of hardcore and pop punk remained in their music, choosing to dive face-forward into the world of shoegaze. The tracks on Hyperview echo with enough reverb and breathy vocals, it’d make Kevin Shields cry tears of joy. “Chlorine” is a nice jangly tune, that probably would have been a great hit on MTV’s 120 Minutes two decades ago. “Your Pain Is Mine Now” is arguably the centrepiece of the whole album, a beautifully melancholic cut that evokes the breezy shoegaze of acts such as Galaxie 500 or Lush. The production on Hyperview is undoubtedly slicker and less grittier than Title Fight’s previous recordings, however it seems as if the band relies too much on the production. Lead singer Jamie Rhoden appears to have given up the barking vocals of earlier releases, opting for a softer My Bloody Valentine-esque cooing vocal style, typical of shoegaze singers. Unfortunately, this schtick gets old real fast, as does the album itself. Once the first five songs finish, Hyperview quickly descends into bland, monotonous shoegaze wankery.

Compared to the raucous and blistering melodic-tinged hardcore of their earlier albums, Hyperview is definitely a much more gentle and softer affair, and it suffers due to this factor. The jangling riff that opens “Your Pain Is Mine Now” makes you wonder whether Title Fight are closet Smiths fanatics, and Rhoden’s vocals really make you question whether or not he’s been listening to too much Ride. “Trace Me Onto You” with its driving guitar and vaguely pop punk-e is arguably the closest Hyperview comes to catching the upbeat and energetic spirit of Title Fight’s earlier recordings, acting as a decent throwback in the last quarter, amid a sea of dull reverberated guitars and little to no drumming.The songs all sound pretty enough, but there’s not a whole lot of substance to them. You get the feeling that the band compromised on the songwriting, just to make the production sound better and more spectacular in the process. The majority of the songs don’t stick with you at all, the album just sort of floats off in its own cloudy haze, there’s nothing to really grab you at all. Even with shoegaze, you still need a decent melody or groove in order to hook the listener in, and James Brown’s decayed corpse would have more groove in it than the songs on Hyperview.

Whereas Floral Green was a nice compromise between the more mosh-friendly hardcore and introspective naval-gazing alt rock, Hyperview takes the latter. If you’re a fan of acts like Pity Sex or Citizen, who similarly put a more punk influenced spin on the traditional shoegaze formula, then Title Fight’s latest album should be right up your alley. However if you’re a die-hard fan of the band and miss their grittier music, there’s not much to like here I’m afraid. Evolving an established sound can make or break a band and in Title Fight’s case, I sadly think that is has hampered them quite drastically. You could make the argument that Hyperview’s sleeker and slightly more commercial-friendly sound benefits the group, as you could easily picture half the songs on here making an impact on commercial radio. However, if they have to compromise their original sound in order to grow and mature like that, what’s the point? Sorry Title Fight, you’ve lost me on this one.

5/10