TURNSTILE NEVER ENOUGH (Roadrunner) — Turnstile could have locked in on the sound that brought them a real breakthrough on their 2021 album, Glow On. Stasis would have surely been rewarded. Instead, their follow-up release, NEVER ENOUGH, takes the previous records hardcore punk bona fides and crashes them into sonic reinvention. The album opening title cut makes the announcement that Turnstile is up for adventure, incorporating synths, soaring melodies, and echoing, yearning vocals. That slides right into “SOLE,” which puts them back in familiar pummeling mode but complicates matters with few ethereal organ lines that streak through like fighter jets. The goal seems to be constant discombobulation, making space for both the hurtling “DULL” and modernized new wave on “SEEIN’ STARS.” The production has the hard sheen of well-polished stainless steel, accentuating the sense of real purpose to every choice across the album. That might disrupt sea legs in the mosh pit when, say, “SUNSHOWER” shifts from hardcore to new age and somehow makes both modes feel right. “I CARE” even suggests what Sting’s early solo career might have sounded like if he remembered that he started out as a punk rocker as pressed that fervor into his jazzy ruminations. The faithful might be unsettled, but daring listeners will reap great rewards. On NEVER ENOUGH, Turnstile keeps spinning. Try fruitlessly to sate your needs with the following tracks: “DREAMING,” “LOOK OUT FOR ME,” “SLOWDIVE,” and “MAGIC MAN”

SMUG BROTHERS Stuck on Beta (Anyway) — Like his fellow Buckeye Robert Pollard, Kyle Melton is always ready to rustle through his big bag of song ideas and draw out a heaping helping of punchy, catchy charmers. On Stuck on Beta, the latest from Columbus outfit Smug Brothers, Melton’s tunes pop like well-heated kernels. There’s a looseness to the way they’re presented, suggested a minimum of fuss and an unabashed joy in the playing. These are songs to be played for those who linger in the club to the wee hours of the night, the true believers who feel every ragged chord all the way down to the marrow. Every rough-hewn moment is an invitation to be another true believer. “Prank Editions” is a good example, maybe in part because it calls to mind Guided by Voices in the way it adheres to classic pop song styles while simultaneously defying them. “Flushing James” adopts a Strokes-like edgy energy, and “Noble Harper” calls to mind Tom Petty’s feints towards new wave in the early nineteen-eighties and adds in some comfy E Street horns to make the bygone-album-rock-radio feel complete. It’s okay to get stuck in this place. Besides those mentioned, check these cuts: “Paper Jane,” “Sidewalk Champagne,” and “Arcade Strange”