FLIPTURN - BURNOUT DAYS
Burnout Days is the second full length studio album by the DIY prodigies of Fernadina Beach, FL. The album was released digitally on January 24, 2025, through Dualtone Records.
ALBUM OVERVIEW: You will know within the 1st 2 songs if a band like Flipturn is for you. They make a strong opening statement that cascades into a mystical and internal landscape of angst, reward and exhibited patience that shines a light on a maturity that doesn't often exist in a band like this. Especially 2 albums in, but you immediately get a sense that Flipturn will not conform to the norm that their contemporaries and legends of the genre have and yet still pay some homage. The idea that they demand and require patience and openmindedness from us, is ballsey in a manner of a punk rock stalworth like Sonic Youth, and it's that bravado that propels this album into a landscape that a band at this stage of its journey very rarely demands. I appreciate that.
I really do, but it also becomes a double-edged sword because I also struggle with how to reconcile the lack of what I know exists as fervor in this genre. I am not good at patience. It's probably why I prefer the more commercial elements here like I do of Pixies or The Cure. Still, again I have to be grateful for a band like this to challenge that, to upend what I know as convention, and look deep into what they are portraying and what they are mastering. There is a lot to unpack with Burnout Days, a lot more than I expected. Not all of it works but when it does, it's somewhere on the description line of genius meets understanding.
Dillon Basse has strength and comfort in his voice and words that resonate strongly throughout. There are some amazing bass lines by Madeline Jarman coupled with the very enriching tones of a very angelic and spirited exploration of Mitch Fountain and Tristan Duncan. Mitch provides a very nice synth, especially to the more rocker tracks here. It does tend to drown out the nice percussion work by Devon VonBalson but without that tempo setting, there would be much more problematic with this album.
Flipturn is a band that takes a little of that swagger and irreverence from the 70s, punches in a lot of the smiling danceable 80s, and ignores the 90s to mix in what bands who dare to resolute a modern sound that some say a lot of the bands above I mentioned are adopting from them and their contemporaries. Which makes me know they are on the right track and we have a lot to enjoy here because of it.
So let's go ahead and break down these tracks:
JUNO is as strong an opener as I can remember it is easily the most commercial of the efforts here and that's not a bad thing because it catches you and holds you in comfort. Love the recognition right away of the influences and ahh of having an infatuation or even jealousy of cool, "Tripping through the timeline. Making the doves cry." This is a song that will make strong rounds on my rotation of playlists.
RODEO CLOWN is as strong as a follow-up could be too because it is so different and stylish. There is a nice bit of that '70s swagger I spoke about above in this mix. It is one of the rare tracks on this album to have a hook that has that nice rhythmic flow to it. This band doesn't explore choruses often but when they do like here it works to perfection.
INNER WAVE starts to show you their 80s elements. There is also a jam band element here that I feel loses some of the gifts of this band like the percussion and bass but layers a unique sway that you can almost utilize as background and still love its power. This is the hard part of the commercial elements because the guitar represents the hook here and the bridge from the zero to sixty vibe that you are waiting for that never comes, this song kind of stays in neutral.
SUNLIGHT is where we begin to see the band really shift. The lyrical tone becomes more of self-reflection than amused observation (as is with the 1st 3 songs here). This might be the strongest lyrically Basse dives deep into himself for, verses like "Baby what's your truth?" present these powerful lyrics. The music flows well with this presentation.
MOON ROCKS gives us our first taste of a more stripped-down version of Flipturn. There's a nice build that is more of what the modern aspects of this genre bands like Delta Sleep have cultivated. This is, "I am on mushrooms" or in a deep state of meditation song and here's what my brain sees. Another one though that I will hear again through my softer playlists that have the likes of Delta Sleep on it. For me this is the best surprise on the album.
RIGHT? then again changes gears, and the only true song I think that favors a more '90s approach to it. I love that they are out there pushing these boundaries. This is the angst portion of this exploration and it works well because you almost feel Dillon's push to be very direct and pull no punches with lyrics like "You've got air in your lungs, light in your eyes". The strumming guitar riff here also has this nice apt touch to this feeling it out type song that takes its time and rocks you toward the end. It is their rocker on the album and another I will hear again on my playlists when I am in the mood for Smashing Pumpkins-like material.
WINDOW so you finally rip a rocker in there so what do you do? Flipturn you live up to your name and give us this esoteric, stripped down I am out here in the woods and I got a guitar with me type of song. The hard part for me though is sticking with it, it does step into a more full-blown modern sound but it almost feels wrong when you are so deeply tranced by the beauty of being stripped down.
SWIM BETWEEN TREES is the young adult soundtrack song that has the weird almost Jethro Tull-like flutey synth. The lyrics can run into the song a little much here and there a weird spot where it feels like Dillon is trying to catch up instead of investing in the rhythm. This might be the hot divider song though, as it isn't for me but I can see it being one of the few songs someone who hasn't enjoyed this album might actually like.
TIDES gets us back into this nice soft build with incredible guitar work that builds into a very strong lyrical barrage of self-inflection. Where Swim seemed to be on two separate pages, Tides really has this inclusion and blend that brings us back into a more modern fold. I would acquiesce for a better placement on the album, if for nothing else the sheer fact it doesn't come bubbling up in our shuffle culture because it is so far down and out of reach. This will be another song though I hear it again.
REASON TO PRETEND brings us back to their '80s fling and if this track had followed Swim, it would have made Swim a better track for me. I love the subversion of the upbeat hook coupled with really dark lyrics. It's an interesting dichotomy that almost made this my favorite song on the album. This is very hooky but it works so damn nicely. A strong contender for the song of Flipturn's that I play the most in 2025.
IF IT IS has this Jason Mraz/John Mayer, singer-songwriter vibe that is accompanied by a great vibrato and awesome guitar lick that leads into a beautiful shift in the tempo. This may be the best switch they do on the album, the keyboard addition really pushes it as it goes from that singer/songwriter reflective to a very nice up tempo but even-keeled modern indie rock. Where it even touches on some '80s Depeche Mode-like sentiment. I loved the switch and again another song you can add to a playlist of mine and I will dig it.
BURNOUT DAYS finally the title track ends the journey and it has one of the most stylish riffs almost surf music meets Tears For Fears and then the synth leads us into full-on '80s mode. The build in Dillon's voice here is very nice and for the first time in this album, you feel like he is writing and singing to the music build versus his lyrics leading or pushing against it. It is like a reflex instead of an arrangement and it really works.
This is an album with many songs that will be strong playbacks for me and depending on where you fall in what you like I think it will become that for a lot of you out there too. Flipturn doesn't push the agenda, they play with it, observe it, and give us great introspection and self-awareness where doubts should win and don't. This is far from a perfect or a no-skips album, but you get the sense that could be coming, this band has a really good case to make for getting there eventually.
YOU CAN GET BURNOUT DAYS HERE
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