The Turnback is the talents of Todd Giglio (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Kenny Sherman (vocals, guitar, bass) and Barry Nagel (drums, guitars, keyboards). Drawing inspiration from numerous power pop sources, the album is the primary soundtrack for the film “Drawing With Chalk,” an acclaimed independent film by Giglio about the lifelong pursuit of a career in film and music (view trailer here).
The unmistakable jangle and beat opens up “Beyond Belief” and it is very similar to the Spongetones, with crisp harmonies and solid melody lines in a Beatlesque vein. The next several songs are excellent, “Over and Out of My Head” is full of seamless hooks and the folk-rock harmonies shine on “Outside Again.” Things only slow down a bit with the falsetto-laden “We Become.” But this is a minor hiccup, as the strong timeless compositions make each of these songs memorable. The style isn’t static either, as it gets heavier on “Love Like Bombs,” and lighter on the ballads like “One Day You’ll Be Rich.”
There is no filler here, and all twelve tracks are meticulously crafted to require repeated listens. Also notable is the clean production by Grammy Award winning engineer Jeff Peters (Beach Boys, Brian Setzer, Goldspot) and mastered by Joe Gastwirt (Tom Petty, Talking Heads, Pearl Jam). The album has already won many honors, so to be redundant I am proud to add this to our Top Ten List for 2011.
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