The Lemon Twigs - Look For Your Mind! Review
D'addario brothers embalm the art of pastiche with guitar-driven sixth album Look For Your Mind!
For brothers Brian and Michael D'addario, music is all they know. Sons of working musician parents, inspired by the ethereal world of music theatre, the brothers were compelled to venture into the arts in some capacity. Before they knew it, they had a debut record out in 2016 when they were still teenagers. Indebted to the golden age of guitar pop, and those baroque pop icons before them - including Wings and The Zombies to name a few - the duo coined a sound of guitar-led harmony and folk-rock that was inspired - but still felt wholly authentic. Whether it was fortune or fate, The Lemon Twigs have gone on to write, record and perform ambitious, theatrical power-pop works and doozy folk reconstructions since their heyday.
Soon after their formation, success came quickly - as did the records in fact. The brothers went conceptual on their follow-up musical Go to School in 2018, which told the story of a chimpanzee raised by human parents. 2023 saw the boys release Everything Harmony and A Dream Is All We Know the following year, which featured a cacophony of rampant ideas evoking some of their best put to paper. Beautiful ballad ‘Corner of My Eye’ rocked fans, beguiled by the band’s flair of Garfunkel-esque harmonies, while the garage-pop rush of ‘My Golden Years’ proved a blazing triumph. With every release, we saw a new side to Brian and Michael. As they got older, it seemed that their writing process was maturing with them.
This is where we catch up The Lemon Twigs on their sixth studio record. Once again, the highly strung guitars play their major role in the band’s identity but this time, something new has entered the fold here.
Underneath its optimistic coating of high harmonies and euphoric nods, here lies an undercurrent of paranoia and suspicion. The songs are sung with a smile, but it doesn't come without a fervent glance over your shoulder every now and again. "I do think that now is a time of insanity," admits Brian after pausing for thought. "You really have to hold onto your own mind if you don't wanna lose it." Amongst this thought, the pair have offered thirteen tracks for moments of musings and above all else, a moment of escape.
Opener title track ‘Look for your Mind’ enters jangly strings and shared vocals with a beat not too dissimilar to The Beatles' Ticket to Ride. Brian's 2 or 3 - a chorus that came to him in a dream - is a sweet teen-beat that tells a story about a fella who's not cultured enough for his girlfriend while ‘Nothin' But You’ defies tradition with a crunchier guitar inflection that is a listen worth savouring. Other notables come in the form of ‘Gather Round’, a woozy campaign song that's distinctly '60s while ‘Fire and Gold’ offers a textural nod to the Irish folk subsection - the energetic segue riff is a welcoming change-up here. Orchestration setups are in full flow here too, with majestic powerhouse, ‘You're Still My Girl’ and slow ponder ‘Joy’ no doubt getting plenty of repeat plays on this largely stacked record. It all feels remarkably retro but equally, wonderfully contemporary. Closing track ‘Your True Enemy’ offers something different altogether - an intense fragility at the heart of it, spurred on by a sinister going-on amongst vocal modulations and backward vocals. Very Sgt. Pepper indeed.
Whether you're on the right or wrong side of imitation in art, it cannot be ignored how blatant The Lemon Twigs' adorations have inspired their art. But just like the Zeppelins before them, it's only a matter of time before the brothers are in their own lane entirely. And while it can be argued that The Lemon Twigs imitate more than innovate, paying homage to a genre long-lost to the passing of time can only be a good thing.
Crunchy organs, fuzzy synths, droning cellos and of course the iconic one-twos of guitar and harmony play into a sixth record that sees the boys stripping back - and being all the more adventurous with their sound. Momentous performances and brazen curveballs define a pair who are just as exciting now as when they first stepped out into the unknown a decade ago. While Look For Your Mind! traipses away from the psych-pop eccentrics on prior releases and reaches into the golden age of '60s guitar-pop, it still stacks up from a band of brothers who are still, above all else, generational songwriters.