The best thing about music is how do-it-yourself it is. You could just be a fan of music, feel like being a musician with your influences worn on your sleeve and hone your skills with friends of similar interest. A vision isn’t realized on its own, so you can put up a post looking for people to make music with and someone who fits the bill just says hi. Things just happen and progress, with the next thing you know, you’re on track to making a well-oiled machine of your own music.
Enter Turn Two, a pop-punk band hailing from the Jersey Shore that incorporates the trademarks of frenetic musicianship, touching lyrics, and emotional nostalgia of early 2000s-era Pop Punk and the general Emo scene, all with the energy and aggressiveness embraced by the genres they proudly present with. Turn Two was born in the very same hypothetical I presented earlier, with a few more details that you’ll find on their social media profiles as their story is a very simple one in the best ways possible. While their story is far from over, they are approaching a new peak with their debut EP, “Darkest Days.”
The 6-track Extended Play is a dichotomy to its title, as the songs here are less a reflection of the aforementioned darkest days, but instead are well-done and well-realized songs about overcoming and powering through the darkest days. Themes of self-medicating, looking back as a way of moving forward and getting through things one step a time while recognizing the current steps taken are painful and necessary, all with catchy riffs bouncing off each other complimented by harmonious Green Day-esque vocal harmonies and a joyfully buoyant experience as drum fills fly all over- the perfect recipe for some lean, clean, and mean pop-punk stables.
Tracks like Limiting, Medicine (Black and Blue), Polaroid and Symptoms of Silence are such a delight to listen to as the trademarks of emo music are done so tastefully well it transports you into eras of before, rocking out in simpler times with simpler folks. Medicine (Black and Blue) is my personal favorite out of all the tracks here, as its simple chorus of emotional wailings from lead singer Mike Hayden reassuring the listener that they do in fact, take their medicine as he, alongside the other members, Shane Maziekien, Matt Favaloro and Mason Ingling trade off oblique vocal harmonies and rhythm-ridden rock music with the ease of a well-done machine.
Turn Two’s debut EP is perfect for the darkest days, because it’s a great soundtrack to reminding listeners that music is perfect for overcoming them and for that, I highly recommend it.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
