The 2018 Jester One Music Top 20 Countdown - #6

#6. Turnspit - Walk Away




One of the most surprising breakouts for the 2018 version of the J1 Countdown was the meteoric rise of Turnspit and their debut album Desire Paths. The Chicago-based pop-punk quartet made a record that is exactly what punk rock should sound like in 2018. Guitarists Gillian McGhee and Jason Swearingen share the vocal duties, with the former giving great wails and range to her voice, and the later bringing gruff rage and power to the bands upbeat catalogue. I'm not even sure how the band ended up on my Spotify Discover a few weeks before the album dropped, but I was immediately impressed with the potent vocal combination and the earnest lyrical effort put forth by both of the singers. "Irish Name" is the song that I saw get the most attention, but I loved "Midsentence" and the heart-wrenching "Skin" as well.


"Walk Away" features one of my favorite opening riffs of any song I encountered in 2018, bar none. The song drives forward as McGhee laments the end of a great relationship that neither party wanted to see come to conclusion. The instruments pummel you while the words cut through the hardest of hearts. If nothing else, it's one of those songs that you absolutely cannot skip after it starts, because everyone has lived through it and knows that they need to hear it to help them through the pain.  The song fell just short of 4k streams on Spotify, and the album averaged about 2500 streams per song without a video or any single releases.


Desire Paths actually begs the question of what the band can do for a follow up. You can feel the angst in both of the singers and you wonder what else might come from their tortured minds. Either way, this is one hell of an album - definitely a top 5 for me in 2018.


Favorite line: literally the entire song, both Jason and Gillian's lines "This is gonna hurt me as much as it hurts you, but sometimes good things just end because they have to. This is something that I never thought I’d have to say."





 




Title: Walk Away
Artist: Turnspit
Album: Desire Paths


Previous #6s
2017: Assemblage 23 - Bravery
2016: Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown - Loaded Dice and Buried Money
2015: Lamb of God - 512
2014: Lo-Fang - When We're Fire
2013: Tegan and Sara - Closer
2012: Lamb of God - King Me
2011: Nine Lashes - Anthem of the Lonely
2010: Them Crooked Vultures - Mind Eraser, No Chaser
2009: Kelly Clarkson - Already Gone