Well, my towel has been thrown in. My white flag is waving. I’m done for. flipturn you’ve done it.
I’d say I’m headed on week 4 of listening to pretty much only flipturn. Maybe I’ve added in the occasional Leon Bridges or George Harrison, but please just take one look at my current playlist and it’ll be so clear to you how in deep I am: Somewhere in Manhattan .
Deciding which album to write about while on my 4.5 hour bus ride was almost one challenging task. Luckily, I’m currently hyperfixating on a specific EP, and that helped speed up my decision-making process. So without further ado…
This Florida-based indie rock group is said to have vocals of “something between Neil Young and Fleet Foxes.” If that description doesn’t tickle your fancy, I’m not really sure what will. Dillon Basse, Tristan Duncan, Madelina Jarman and Adrian Walker released their third EP, Something You Needed, back in 2020. Following Citrona (2018), flipturn felt that they really began honing in on their sound–especially on their single, “Eleanor.” And yeah, I’ll give them that. I just sent that song to my dad yesterday. With energy like The Fixx, guttural voices like Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell and sensations like The Cure, how could I not put that song on his radar? In summary, they pretty much discovered their sound and it is heaven-sent.
Back to this legendary EP at hand. In an interview, Dillon claimed “Something You Needed was a fruition of all that searching [for our sound] and hopefully sets a higher bar for ourselves to shoot for with everything we do in the future.” Well, you heard it here, that bar is now inexplicably high.
Surprisingly, the most-listened to song is the opener, “Savannah.” I am always one to appreciate a nice little minute-long intro, but really it doesn’t need to be the most streamed on the album. Justice for the tracks 2-5! However, I must express my gratitude for how seamlessly this intro leads into my favorite song off the album, “Something You Needed.” Those opening strums could be straight out of The Eagles’ or even America’s discography. I could press replay all day long (I do). “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was clearly written before these strums were strummed, because this is the definition of letting the soul release… and letting a guitar just weep. Dillon Basse and Tristan Duncan went maybe even further than what the Beatles could’ve ever suggested.
Oh, was it something you needed?
Is that what you thought, that life owed you love?
Well, God bless your heart, it never does
That storming chorus makes me long for who knows what. And somehow, I think that’s the whole point. Who knew that they’d be giving us a lesson on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the middle of their song? And make that lesson sound so good?
To highlight one more song, I must talk about the song that even brought me to this EP: “Glistening.” This song reminds me that even though this band can decide to write their lyrics out in the North Carolinian mountains, their roots are planted deep in the Floridian palms.
Sweet thing, if I’m losing you
Know my silver linings hit me in the afternoon
Beautiful metaphor here. Magical guitar riff there. It’s hard to dislike this one.
As for the rest of the EP: I’ve had my moment with “Poppies,” but not so much “Did I Love You (Like I Promised To).” The latter is a bit too flashy for me. However, I must trust flipturn’s process.
I promise I’ll listen to other bands soon to add a bit more flavor to these posts. But these songs have been right under my nose (my roommate tried putting me on a year ago) for far too long, and it’s time I fully appreciate them. Don’t be like me a year ago, give Something You Needed a chance.
Iz FM 
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