Using hard syncopation, witty lyrics, driven guitars and no-nonsense melodies, Spangled’s latest release certainly proves to be a dramatic burst of electricity.
Welcoming you in with calm, ambient soundscape, ‘Turmoil’ quickly reveals a peculiar concoction of conflicting tones, effects and personality. Despite nodding its head towards a heavier style of modern indie-rock, there’s no escaping the influence that the notorious ‘Manchester sound’ has over the track, with stylistic components of northern nineties’ Britpop working their way into the spotlight. ‘Turmoil’s drive very suddenly contrasts with the ambience of the intro, presenting itself with twangy, treble-filled guitar chords that hint towards the rest of the track. The theme soon turns its head to a combination of fast-paced driven tones and tongue-in-cheek lyrics bursting with an air of fearless confidence, passionately radiating the singers despair towards their unreciprocated admiration towards someone who is happily independent.
Though the track experiments with an array of different tones and effects, the overuse of reverb just misses the mark slightly. The vocals certainly make their presence known at the forefront of the track, but the sheer amount of reverb just doesn’t work as well with the fast-paced phrasing of the lyrics in the songs verses. It definitely would have benefitted the track to leave the reverb to the choruses as it does prove work with the vocals considerably more efficiently in this section and would have boosted the choruses impact. That being said there’s no denying that the overall adrenaline of the track is seriously exciting and there’s no doubt its energy will be highly infections when played live.
Although radiating a less hyper energy, B-side ‘Peculiar Faces’ is incredibly strong considering it isn’t the main single. Despite the excessive reverb still making a cheeky appearance, the similar style of savvy lyrics are performed over a more sophisticated instrumental structure, allowing the different layers of the song to all be heard as opposed to hiding behind exaggerated effects. Like ‘Turmoil’ however, I would suggest leaving the intensity of the effects to the chorus to really make it pop from the verse. In spite of this, the melodies within the song itself are particularly memorable, leaving a pleasant catchiness for your head to mull over.