Turn Two are a band stepping up to show exactly why they belong in the coveted New Jersey music scene, one that has seen the likes of My Chemical Romance and Thursday carve out names for themselves. Never a band afraid to take their 2000s pop-punk roots and expand on that sound, Turn Two bring together the frantic energy of the genre with something a little more personal.
Following up 2024's Darkest Days EP, Turn Two are back with their new EP, Never Meant To Fit. Get a more in-depth look into the EP with my track by track review.
Care to Care
Where some bands would try and ease the listener into their EP with their opening track, Turn Two take a different road and decide to emotionally destroy. It starts with things already broken, pushed aside and awkwardly held together with bandages that were never gonna make them fit. There is no real build up or warning for what is about to come; instead the song drops you straight in the middle of something that has been clearly hurting for a long time. With gentle acoustic guitars, you're almost tricked from the first note into thinking this will be peaceful when it's in fact the opposite.
The deepest cut in this one-minute song is the line "coulda had a daughter / but he'd rather have a whisky." The simplicity of this line is what makes it hurt the most; there is no hiding behind a metaphor, just a heartbreaking truth that's spilling out. As an opening track, this song feels less like an introduction and more like starting a TV show that just drops you off halfway through the breakup of a family. You don't know what's happened, but you know enough to understand that something went terribly wrong.
Sideways
Going from the gentle acoustic sounds of "Care To Care," "Sideways" wastes no time in establishing its frustration, opening with "mean what you say!" before throwing the listener into a mess of distrust, paranoia and the mindset of someone who's desperately trying to work out which version of the truth they are supposed to believe.
Musically, the song feels like a mix of Set Your Goals and early Fall Out Boy, the frantic pop-punk energy paired with lyrics packed with phrases and ideas to the point they're almost spilling over themselves. "With every word I'm / hopeful but cautious / I start to feel nauseous / when your story strays" captures that feeling perfectly, with the narrator wanting to believe what they are being told while already knowing there's a high chance they're being lied to. The song itself feels like trying to play Monopoly with someone who keeps changing the rules halfway through just so they can win.
Nice Thing
"Nice Thing" finds Turn Two at their most internally restless so far, trading the outward frustration of "Sideways" for something more personal. Where the previous track is concerned with trying to make sense of someone else's lies, "Nice Thing" feels like being left alone with everything afterwards, and having absolutely no idea what to do with it. It feels like the narrator is trying to put themselves back together but they're not sure where the pieces should go anymore. "I've been searching for the glue, that I think I left with you." The line sounds simple at first, but the more you sit with it, the more depressing it becomes. The narrator is not just missing someone, they're searching for the part of themselves they feel like they've left behind.
"Nice Thing" carries the same restless feeling, with the song pushing forward in a way that never really lets the narrator's thoughts settle for too long. That works especially well alongside "my train of thought's more like a handcar, go through the motions and it never gets me far," because the song itself feels like it's constantly moving without arriving anywhere.
Hourglass
This track feels like the point where Turn Two finally stop trying to force all the pieces together and start asking whether they were ever meant to fit in the first place. After "Nice Thing" left the narrator stuck searching for the glue to keep themselves in one piece, "Hourglass" looks at the person they used to be and wonders what exactly is worth carrying forward. "I saw the ghost of my old self" immediately makes it feel like someone that is still hanging around, even after all the effort they've made to change. There's lots of talk about time throughout the song, which makes everything feel slightly more urgent, like no matter how hard you try, you can't stop time.
"Would you even miss me?" is a line that carries the same insecurity that has followed the EP so far, but by the end of the song, the narrator seems to have found an answer. "You make me the best, you are home." It's simple, but it works so well because the song takes the time to get there. After all the talk of changing, growing old and running out of time, it lands on the idea that maybe you don't need to have fully healed yourself before letting someone in. That it's okay to still be a work in progress, and that finding someone who feels like home doesn't mean you have all the answers.
Just Trying (Until My Heart Breaks)
After ending "Hourglass" on the comforting idea that it's okay to still be a work in progress, "Just Trying (Until My Heart Breaks)" asks what happens when you've been working on yourself for so long that you're no longer sure whether you're getting anywhere. "I'm not sure I'm getting better or bitter" feels like the line that holds the whole song together. Despite the narrator wanting to change, every attempt seems to come with another reason to doubt themselves. Even "I took the mask off by mistake" suggests that being honest isn't necessarily freeing, and that sometimes you take the mask off and realize you're unsure you like what you find underneath.
With the song's back-and-forth energy, the narrator is unable to settle comfortably into either hope or defeat. "Play the part until my heart breaks" becomes the song's central idea: if becoming a better version of yourself does not come naturally, maybe you can just pretend until something finally gives. But it never really lets that idea become reassuring. "I'm not gold, just plated in tin, but I won't just erode" shows someone who doesn't think highly of themself whilst still refusing to completely give up. By the end, the repeated question of "are you trying?" feels less like a question being asked by someone else, and more like the narrator asking it to themself.
No Skips
There's a point where "just one more" stops sounding like a choice and starts to sound more like a threat. "No Skips" carries that frantic, messy energy that suits the subject perfectly, never feeling completely settled as the lyrics spiral further into self-destructing drinking. There's something claustrophobic about the way the song keeps returning to the same ideas, particularly with "one drink," "one sip," and eventually the ending of "Just one more drink!" It feels like the listener is trapped in the narrator's head as they battle with themselves over something they already know the answer to. "I don't want to drink, just one more drink." It's the clearest example of the contradiction, turning what should be a simple discussion into an internal battle.
What makes "No Skips" such an effective song is that it leans into the 2000s pop-punk inspiration, making it a song that wouldn't be amiss on an album by the likes of New Found Glory, The Story So Far, etc. It has a messy, slightly reckless feeling that made a lot of early 2000s pop-punk so loved; music that sounds energetic enough to jump around to while having the lyrics reveal that things are actually pretty bad.
There Is Still Time
After spending so much of Never Meant To Fit dealing with guilt, self doubt, broken relationships and the various ways people try to escape from themselves, "There Is Still Time" feels like the light finally peeking out through the cracks. As the closing track, it doesn't try to neatly fix everything that came before it, instead it takes all that hurt and turns it into something more hopeful. "Tape by tape, set it aside, if it means no pain" feels almost like an instruction, while "pieces that were lost, can still be found" acts more as a reminder. There's still anger here, but the song's focus is ultimately on surviving the past.
After spending much of the EP inside of the narrator's own head, Turn Two finish by looking outward and simply offering someone a place to stand. The song feels like the perfect closer because there's no promise that suddenly everything will become perfect, instead it refuses to believe that the story ends with a happy ever after. Ending with "There Is Still Time" feels less like the band closing the door and more like them finally deciding to leave it open for what's to come.
You can catch Turn Two in New Jersey in September and at the Maryland Skull House Rock Festival with the likes of Fluorescents and glimmers in November.