In 2016, The Lemon Twigs stormed onto the scene sporting spandex jumpsuits, bell bottoms, ‘70s haircuts, and enough vintage synth to make you nostalgic for a time you never experienced. Born and raised in a small Long Island town, brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario were only teenagers when they decided to take their love for bygone rock’n’roll vigour and distil it into their glorious unruly debut ‘Do Hollywood’, backing their sound with raucous onstage antics that had NME comparing Brian to “a young madcap Keith Moon”.
They followed their introduction with ‘Go To School’, using their upbringing as kid actors on TV and Broadway productions to create a bombastic and bizarre rock musical about an adopted chimp named Shane. Sure! By the time ‘Songs For The General Public’ rolled around in 2020, the former thespians had already proven themselves retro-obsessed provocateurs; that album cemented that standing by venturing even deeper into classic rock territory, with 12 tracks that ranged from baroque pop to anthemic glam punk.
For album four, the brothers Lemon Twig set their sights on melodic vocal harmonies and a desire to create “something really beautiful sounding”. They got to work between 2020 and 2021, tracking much of the album in a “chaotic rehearsal studio” in Manhattan before finding solace in San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios, then returning to New York and mastering the songs in Brooklyn. Much like the recording destinations, the album shifts locations from despair to loneliness, then back to euphoria, all while reflecting the “palpable mood of defeat” the brothers felt as they recorded it.
The album’s first single, ‘Corner Of My Eye’ hits their delicate arrangement target, with the duo creating dreamlike soundscapes backed with a vibraphone and nods to Brian Wilson’s melodic prowess. With ‘Any Time Of Day’, they present the type of easy-listening sound that could soundtrack a ‘70s road trip with downtrodden lyrics on the “cyclical nature of life”. On ‘In My Head’, they show off their vocal range with saccharine harmonizing that masks the song’s subject matter, as the duo comes face to face with the complex reality of who they are in comparison to what strangers perceive them to be. ‘Everything Harmony’ peaks with ‘What Happens To A Heart’, as the D’Addarios create a Phil Spector-inspired Wall of Sound, with harpsichord, organs, and French horns and a string quartet helping them build a cinematic ballad with crackling vocals spilling lyrics on the dissolution of heartbreak.
It’s hard to square up to your idols or emulate them in the way The Lemon Twigs intended to, as they pour in their inspiration from Simon & Garfunkel and Arthur Russell in ‘Everything Harmony’. But when you consider that the album was recorded, produced and engineered solely by the D’Addario brothers, it adds even more weight to the fact that they could create songs that harken back to classics without sounding too derivative. ‘Everything Harmony’ plays like the next progression from their promising debut, and what stood out about them then is what stands out about them now. With their fourth album, The Lemon Twigs have honed in on their ability to not just lift from the past but transmute what inspires them into something imaginative and new.
Details
- Release date: May 5, 2023
- Record label: Captured Tracks