The Lemon Twigs
A Dream Is All We Know
CAPTURED TRACKS
ABOVE THE CURRENT
Over the past decade, the Long Island–born brotherly bubblegum duo of Brian and Michael D’Addario have made The Lemon Twigs into something charmingly harmonious and authentically pastiche-driven in precious dedication to the arcane pop of generations past. Throw a rock at 2016’s Do Hollywood, 2018’s Go to School, or this week’s A Dream Is All We Know and you’ll hit Bobby Sherman, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Roy Wood, Todd Rundgren, Pete Ham, any number of Raspberries, one of The Four Freshmen, and at least one cc of the 10cc.
That their influences are so often overly obvious (e.g. Badfinger on the new LP’s “They Don't Know How to Fall in Place,” or “Good Vibrations” on “How Can I Love Her More?”) can be a bit disconcerting. Yet the thrill of listening to—hell, just being, I imagine—The Lemon Twigs is letting your hair down and opening the bright clouds to reveal sunny rays of exquisite harmonized vocalizing; finding yourself adrift in lyrical innocence and smartly concocted, divinely arranged contagious melody; and letting their Op-to-Pop blend simply wash over you with glee.
The bliss of a title track that sounds like a fizzy, rocking version of “Wonderful Christmastime” under the influence of Quaaludes, the plinkety-clinking piano and Magical Mystery chamber strings that fill “Sweet Vibration,” the Everlys-like close harmonic trill of “If You And I Are Not Wise” and its hillbilly lilt, their lonely Wilson Brothers ballad “In the Eyes of the Girl” and its dangerous proximity to “The Warmth of the Sun,” the nasal vocal sound of Lennon and McCartney joined at the hip of “Peppermint Roses,” the softly strummed and subtly complex “Ember Days” and its close-to-the-vest brand of swirling ’60s cinematics—all of it quite amazing. And the fact that 12 songs go by in under 35 minutes leaves you wanting more from vintage pop’s most vexing and excellent excavators.
