Look For Your Mind! The Lemon Twigs Drop New Album
Album Review ★ Jenna Kaufman★ @jennakaufmanphoto★ 3 Minutes
The Lemon Twigs’ latest album, Look for Your Mind!, is a masterclass in technicolor pop-rock that bridges vintage sonic landscapes with modern anxieties. Recorded at the D’Addario brothers’ Brooklyn studio using a vintage 16-track tape machine, the album radiates a warm, analog richness that is rare to find in today’s musical landscape.
Tight harmonies and choral vocals contrasted with a gravelly guitar tone create an atmosphere that is impossible not to dance to. Listening to the title track first is an immediate hook, calling listeners to look for their minds along with the band, joining them for the ride.
The Lemon Twigs, photographer unknown"2 or 3" conjures visions of flower fields and romantic montages, anchored by a Beach Boys-esque chorus that stays looped in your mind for hours. A stunning bridge creates enough tension to lead into the final chorus and a perfect key change. The multiple key changes are meticulously placed, aligning beautifully with the lyrics as the narrator ponders his relationship with the muse.
On "Nothin’ But You," the outro is undoubtedly the most memorable moment, with gorgeous, repeated descending harmonies that encapsulate the feeling of falling in love.
"Gather Round" is evocative of Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything? in its playful, multi-instrumental eccentricity, mixed with the Beatles’ Revolver era, featuring bright horns complementing the vocal line and a driving rhythm.
"I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You" was released as a single prior to the album’s release; it features tight harmonies built like classic Brian Wilson arrangements and unexpected timing throughout, with irregular chords that break up the song perfectly, capturing attention and intrigue.
"Fire and Gold" is a beautifully interesting song that draws on the overtones and open chords of Indian classical music, with droning qualities reminiscent of George Harrison's spiritual inspirations, and is directly inspired by Paul Brady’s rendition of “Arthur McBride”. These sounds and phrasing bring an unexpected quality to the record. Their voices and the sliding electric guitar sound blend to create hauntingly beautiful, ear-scratching overtones that are impossible to be distracted from.
From the calming and beautiful "Mean to Me," we are led straight into the "Surfin' U.S.A." and “Summertime Blues”-reminiscent sound of "Bring You Down." Beneath this driving rock with breakdowns stripped down to drums and a fun melody with echoed backup vocals, Brian D’Addario contrastingly highlights the impending horrors of surveillance and the threat AI poses to humans and artists, highlighting the plight of the modern worker in a billionaire's world.
"Joy" breaks up the album with a stunning ballad highlighted by a soaring French horn sound and plucking strings that invoke a fantastical love story, before leading seamlessly into "My Heart is In Your Hands Tonight," a track so full-sounding that it is almost overwhelmingly beautiful.
The closing track, “Your True Enemy,” lacks a straightforward or traditional key. Haunting descending chords lead into the chorus, packed with crunchy vocals and frequent modulation. The song slowly devolves into a feeling of dark, uncontrolled chaos, with soaring metallic sounds that lead into a reversed recording of the brothers’ father reading a W.B. Yeats' passage. Ending on this psychedelic climax, the track overtakes your entire body, as the best psychedelic music does. Hearing voices and the chaotic sounds of machinery and electronics end the album just as energetically as it started, but with a completely new spin, leaving you sitting, pondering what you have just experienced. An audible “wow” was elicited from me; you just have to sit back and close your eyes, and take on the sound as it comes.
I can’t recommend this album enough. Across every track, the intricate chord progressions and soaring, echoed backup vocals both pay homage to the past, and show a band at their peak collaborative and engineering powers. By channeling the analog feel of 1960s and 70s pop-rock through a modern lens, the D'Addario brothers have crafted a record that feels both deeply nostalgic and completely urgent. Look for Your Mind! is a brilliant, immersive psychological journey that demands your full attention from the very first note.
