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Saturday, June 7, 2025

New music: Turnstile, Sunflower Bean, Pool Kids, Kathleen Edwards, The Happy Fits


Turnstile: I Care


This Baltimore group has been billed as "punk-hardcore" since its origin in 2010; its website is turnstilehardcore.com; and every review of its new, fourth album, Never Enough, seems to insist it still fits that genre. But as newcomers to Turnstile, we think a better descriptor is "versatile." The LP has some hard-edged tracks and parts of tracks, but they're mixed with strains of indie-pop, shoegaze, classic rock and even jazz and reggaeton. On this and other songs, lead vocalist Brendan Yates seems to channel Sting. Well, after all, The Police were pretty damn hardcore in their day. (Photo by Alexis Gross)

Sunflower Bean: Take Out Your Insides


We've been spinning "Champagne Taste" and "Nothing Romantic," and now with the full release of Mortal Primetime we're featuring this track that Under the Radar calls "sublime ... heartfelt, folky, and quietly devastating." The lyric is a plea to a friend or lover to share inner thoughts and feelings. Paste says the LP may be the "best album of the trio's career. Because after 10+ years of flirting with nearly every classic-rock trope under the sun, [its new record] casts aside the traditional rock-band impetus to choose an era, genre, and style of rock and roll’s past to emulate - and instead embraces all of them. "

Pool Kids: Easier Said Than Done


We're glad to hear these kids from Tallahassee, Fla., have a new album on the way. This first single is the title track, which vocalist Christine Goodwyne says reflects on how obsessive-compulsive disorder "can just rob your life of joy. Things can be going so well, and then it just sucks any enjoyment out of it." She sings: "I told you I know how to have fun / If only I could let go, it’s easier said than done."

Kathleen Edwards: Save Your Soul


The Canadian singer-songwriter says she decided to call her new album Billionaire "because the word is used in such a caustic way these days. But we should all want to be billionaires in life, to be rich in experience, friendship, purpose, and the pursuit of the things that bring us joy." OK but this song's lyric is clearly about monetary riches: "Line your pockets with gold / Who’s going to save your soul?" The LP, due in August, is co-produced by Jason Isbell, who also contributes guitar, keys and backing vocals.

The Happy Fits: Everything You Do


Three friends from the outer 'burbs of New Jersey formed this band in 2016, and had released an EP and three LPs by 2022. Since then the lineup has changed, with lead singer Calvin Langman and drummer Luke Davis now joined by Nico Rose and Raina Mullen on guitar and backing vocals. Langman says he wrote this song, from their upcoming album Lovesick, "shortly after moving to Brooklyn to live alone for the first time in my life. Maybe it’s just my social circles and algorithm, but I feel there’s a shared feeling amongst everyone right now of being overworked, underpaid, and underloved. 'Everything You Do' is my own internal battle of fighting for my heart vs. being practical and rational. Knowing me, the heart always finds a way to win."

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