Review: Turnstile’s Inspired Hardcore Impressionism

Turnstile’s much-anticipated follow-up to 2021’s massive Glow On is like a mysterious gallery. It’s not so much a collection of tracks, but impressions, aural vignettes that are more about a feeling than a message — a vibe that listeners can pursue at their leisure, like wandering through an echoing portrait hall. It makes sense that frontman Brendan Yates has dubbed himself an “art director” this time around, as the band takes another step toward challenging the already-blurry edges of genre, and creating something new with Never Enough.

The Baltimore hardcore band has always pushed back against convention — Glow On mixed everything from samba and funk with alacrity, and genre purists have often balked at their flirtations with the mainstream. Much like Glow On, the band’s fourth album sounds like the future — if the future is the realm Bill and Ted visited with all of those guys in shiny silver suits playing ­electric guitars like saints giving benediction.

Take the opening title track, which ascends a staircase of sounds —  trippy synths exploding into Pat McCrory ripping on Eighties guitar, Dev Hynes on sweet cello, and Daniel Fang tearing into his drum kit. It’s a transition into “Sole,” one of the hardest tracks on the album. “Dull,” produced in part by hyperpop innovator A.G. Cook, sounds like a boxing match, while the standout “Sunshower” is a moment of hardcore delirium that’s like a temper tantrum in a rainstorm.

“Ceiling” is a contemplative track that evocatively kicks off with a ticking clock, while the Eighties-tinged “Seein’ Stars” undulates like a late-night club track with almost indistinguishable additional vocals from Hynes and Hayley Williams. And “Birds”? It’s more like the Hitchcock movie than anything else. The last song/exhibit, “Magic Man,” a sheer-as-gauze wisp of a track, could be about the sleight-of-hand that goes into being a musician, “wandering the world, but the world’s got a plan of its own.” It’s a fitting end to a haunting collection that’s worth repeat visits.