Coming from Norfolk, Virginia, alt-rock outfit Turncoat Syndicate have returned with their sophomore album: Lost Weekend. Their first project since 2018’s debut The Life You Wanted, they offer an excellent blend of several different rock subgenres. Lead vocalist Dan Forlines makes the band’s influences clear right away, catching ears with a gritty tone that feels equal parts Dave Grohl and Chad Kroeger, but guitarist Will Clarke, bassist Pat Maurer, and Drummer Mat Talley work in impeccable synergy, delivering a varied and intriguing listen front to back.
The album opens very strongly with “Charmed,” ushering in the listener with rapid hi-hats and muted rhythm guitar before an energetic chorus. It prepares us for a solid album on its own, but the mellow bridge before the final hook lets the song catch its breath in a way that one might not expect. As if the song wasn’t enough, it ends with roughly a minute worth of an instrumental breakdown backed by lead guitar and a newly introduced organ— and built around a rhythm that almost felt like bossa nova. The track was already an interesting enough time, but its last few components demonstrate a willingness to switch things up and take rewarding chances.
That said, they still need a solid, comfortable base for the sound before they can adequately build off of things. Followed by “Angels & Devils,” they reaffirm elements from the intro and establish interesting patterns that will go on to define the project as a whole. Chief of these elements is Clarke’s use of repeated, staccato hits of muted guitar to define rhythm behind the rest of the instrumentation. The choruses on this track are spacy and a bit slower, but starting with a bridge near the end, we enter a B section with an unexpected jump in energy.
Several of their songs will use catchy guitar licks to draw the attention of listeners, and even then varying the types of licks employed. On “Outside World,” for example, they opt for something fun and bluesy, whereas the one on “Sweet Ecstasy” lends to its respective track’s leaning into a country-rock sound.
“Past Mistakes” brings feelings of cheer and optimism that haven’t been properly expressed yet on the track list. This song’s lick is the simplest yet, different parts of it appearing before each line of a verse. It makes for a fun sort of call-and-response between guitar and voice, which is an inspired choice for a song about recollection and reflecting on the past mistakes the title would suggest.
“Feathers,” the outro track, carries the successes of the songs that precede it, but continues to make slight tweaks just the same. It reconciles the hopeful optimism seen on songs like “Past Mistakes” with the melancholic yet explosive sound from ones like “Falling Forward” and “Bender,” singing about how the narrator and the listener are watching things burn together and finding happiness where they can: “We did not make these issues… So let’s just be happy.” It ends with a slow build in energy underneath Forlines repeating the line “Spread your feathers” over and over again before it all crashes down into an oddly peaceful outro of acoustic guitar.
All things considered, it is baffling that this band does not already have a wider audience when their output is this good. Hopefully, they continue with the momentum they are starting to build with this release and keep putting out music of this caliber going forward.
Written by Oren Schube