Review / 200 Words Or Less
Turn It Around
These Days

This Blessing, This Curse (2006) Michael

Turn It Around – These Days cover artwork
Turn It Around – These Days — This Blessing, This Curse, 2006

It's been a while since Sacramento churned out a new band worth hearing, but Turn it Around is that band. Their four-song 7" is chuck-full of fast-paced hardcore with a dash of melody. "Live it Up" kicks things off in a sound that is reminiscent of Comeback Kid, which is ironic given the band's name in correlation to Comeback Kid's LP. Turn it Around beef things up on the song "S.T.E.V.E.", the guitars are a bit heavier and the pace has been slowed a tad. I wasn't into this song as much as the first. "Concrete Walls" started out quite promising, but toward the end it kind of lost its focus. But the band redeemed themselves with the last song on the 7". The title track, "These Days," demonstrates a bright future for the band. The songwriting on this song is in top form as they combine both their fast-paced punk influences with their breakdown savvy hardcore ones into a top-notch hardcore anthem. I expect big things from Turn it Around in the future.

6.5 / 10Michael • August 29, 2006

Turn It Around – These Days cover artwork
Turn It Around – These Days — This Blessing, This Curse, 2006

Recently-posted album reviews

Physicalist

Self Titled
Dirt Cult (2026)

F.Y.P is one of the rare bands that I'd say nobody sounds like -- but in the past two months I've caught myself making that comparison twice. First while listening to the new Dumpies LP (spoiler alert: they cover F.Y.P on that same record) and now as I listen to the Physicalist debut EP. The interesting thing here isn't the … Read more

Dylan Thomas

Todo se desvanece
Burnt Toast Vinyl (2026)

When bands spend months slowly piecing together an album with cheap gear, limited time, and apparently an alarming amount of terrible beer, it’s kind of romantic. Not romantic in the polished indie film sense. More romantic in the sense that you can actually hear people chasing a feeling before life pulls them in different directions. That tension sits at the … Read more

Adam Steiner

Darker with the Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs of Love and Death
Rowman & Littlefield (2023)

Adam Steiner doesn’t just break the earth with a spade with this book; he actually digs deep into the fertile soil to enter the cobwebbed crypt. He approaches the catalogue like a forensic scientist examining the maggots on a corpse—meticulously analyzing the rot and the details of decay to chart exactly how long the body has been decomposing. He gets … Read more