By Tanner Bidish, Features Editor
[Run For Cover; 2017]
Rating: 5/10

Key Tracks: “Pure Devotion”, “Breeze”, “All That It Ever Was”

In the two years since Peripheral Vision, Turnover frontman Austin Getz has left east coast Virginia for the glittering sunshine of California, and Good Nature comes off like he brought the band’s sound with him. Sweet harmonies and gentle rifts cover every track. It sounds very much like the band had always been at home in The Golden State, but it lacks a call back to their pop-punk origins and a sense of variety altogether.

The meat of the album reflects the brightness of the cover art; there’s a devotion throughout to creating a lackadaisical atmosphere, balmy, beachy and carefree. “Nothing was ahead of us / That week in California,” Getz coos on the opener, “Super Natural”. The line makes the aim of the record feel painstakingly obvious: the emo boys went west for a pot prescription and carefree days. Nothing is outright boring about the heavy dream-pop direction the group went for, but the consistently down tempo tracks and easy-breezy vibe of it all start to take its toll over 41 minutes.

“What Got In The Way” picks up the pace for a bit, and offers little doses of satisfying guitar licks. However, even here on the third track, the warmth of it all starts to smother the ears. When an album is a myriad of homogeneous light notes, it makes it hard for any one pleasantry to stand out, however, “Breeze” seems to manage. The rhythm of Getz’s delivery is stand-out on this number. The same could be said for the following track, “All That It Ever Was”, which is the peak of the dream-pop mountain that this record is. The chorus hits infectiously with the same uplift of cool wind on a hot summer day.

Even with its stronger moments, Good Nature still disappoints. It’s a bit like overripe fruit – too soft and too sweet. The riffs that bode good vibes in the being, wear out to a saturated drone by the end of the record. Bringing the feels of Cali to the new album is all well and good, but Turnover seems to have gotten lost in the atmosphere in their first stab at beach-emo.