Forever Turned Around - Whitney: Review
is a Chicago indie band who wowed in 2016 with their debut record Light Upon The Lake which featured a unique low-fi indie sound that mixed in elements of folk music to create a brand of indie rock truly their own.
Review By Lavender:
I really enjoyed Whitney's debut album a few years ago and had the chance to catch them live to experience their unique approach to indie music which was a fantastic experience. I have been anticipating another record from the band for quite a while now and after a few solid singles I had high expectations for the album and now that is is here I'm mostly happy with it.
Forever Turned Around is a true sequel to Light Upon The Lake in that it is about as consistent and features an incredibly similar sound. It also falls for for one of the same flaws as the first record with repeating a lot of sounds and making the record a cohesive but repetitive sound. That's why some of these songs serve better as singles and had me very excited for the album. Giving Up is one of my favorite songs here with a sweet and incredibly catchy boyish vocal performance sung in an upper register. The song itself is an excellent little tune that has stuck me as one of my favorite indie singles of the year so far and a great track that I like as the intro song to the record.
The next two singles I also enjoyed quite a bit starting with Valleys (My Love) a track with a bouncy instrumental and a sugary vocal refrain and was one of the most genuine of the songs here. Used To Be Lonely was the final song that featured some clearer mixed vocals and a very brief but cute vocal refrain that helped make the song memorable.
There are a number of other tracks here that are right in line with the singles and helped fill out the tracklist. Song For Ty, My Life Alone and Friend Of Mine are all very solid Whitney tracks that tend to follow their formula pretty tight and execute some good songwriting and great folk inspired instrumentals. Day & Night is one of the most reserved tracks here with a more clearly mixed instrumental that reminds me of Wilco and a fittingly understated vocal performance, the only complaint I have is that the song just stops completely out of nowhere and i wish it had a more fitting ending. Forever Turned Around is the dramatic closing track with some surprisingly energetic lead vocals and one of the brighter and more complex instrumentals the album has to offer with a satisfying closing experience.
There were only a few songs that I had a negative impression of within the context of the album, Before I Know It isn't my favorite track of the bunch because the slide guitar that dominates the instrumental isn't that compelling to be. The vocals are solid here as they are across most of the record but it was one of the songs that just didn't have enough to warrant me returning to it more than a few times. Rhododendron a generic and slouched instrumental that is totally unnecessary and just pads out time in the tracklist.
I'm a little bit conflicted about Forever Turned Around because I like almost all of the songs here on their own, but as an album long listen they frequently return to the same territory over. The band has certainly added some more musical elements to their repitiore but if they are going to make a truly great indie record going forward they have to reach into more detail to find something that makes more of these songs unique. But I can't deny that there is a lot to like about the record and a lot to look forward to with Whitney, and there are a number of tracks here I will be enjoying for the rest of the year. 7.5/10
