Waterparks Get “Turbulent” with New Track

By Faith Logue

Graphic: Emily Lantzy

         Waterparks have come out with lots of truly great music in the past 7 years of being a band, but their recent single called “Turbulent” is one of the best songs I have ever heard from them.

         The song starts out slow, with strumming of a guitar. “Will this be a slow song?” you think to yourself— but in true Waterparks fashion, they quickly surprise you. The opening lyrics were a really interesting Fall Out Boy name-drop with, “You had your own Pete Wentz and Patrick combined, writing these songs and singing them all like every single day.” Right after the surprising start, the explicit pre-chorus amps up the song.

         Awsten Knight, lead singer of Waterparks, drops some bombs on the listening crowd, angrily spewing out lyrics in desperation to get his feelings across. I really liked the use of the concept of turbulence in the chorus, as he is using that all-too well-known bumpy part of an airplane ride to describe a relationship that became rough.

         Going into the second verse, Knight now name-drops himself by saying, “You had your own Awsten Knight (Hi)!” I really liked how he is talking about himself in the third person, which I have not seen very many artists do.

         Heading into the chorus again, it becomes slower, leading up to some type of beat drop, it seems. But instead, Waterparks throw in another verse before that big drop. The verse has some neat, abstract vocal effects, which reminded me a lot of the outro to “bad guy” by Billie Eilish, when Billie repeats “I’m the bad guy” in quiet, slurred hushes. I am not sure if that was intentional, inspired by Billie, or completely coincidental, but either way, the effect is very cool.

         Leading to the conclusion of the track is probably my favorite lyric in the song and it is, “And that’s where you left me to die.” After that, we finally have the foreshadowed crazy drop with Otto Wood, drummer, and Geoff Wigington, guitarist, going absolutely crazy on their instruments. It seems that as soon as the beat drop and insanity happens, the song is over with just some mild noises at the end, perhaps leading into another track on the future album.

         In conclusion, “Turbulent” by Waterparks is one of the best new releases this year, and I recommend that you go listen to it right now, even if you have never listened to Waterparks before. You can stream it wherever you listen to music.