Retrospective and unique is a tough line to respectfully blur. The Lemon Twigs may wear their influences openly, but it is the adaptations they make to the sound, and the ability to fabricate an era while inflicting pops of scathing modernity which makes them so interesting. A Dream Is All We Know hits out at the rumblings of love and life on an album released just a year after their exceptional Everything Harmony. Listeners are once more in for a treat. Opener My Golden Years kickstarted a monumental continuation of their crisp sounds and the writing has been on the wall since then. With the sun shining outside and the warmer weather soon, briefly, appearing in the UK, there is no better time to listen to the floaty and summery appeal of The Lemon Twigs’ latest.
Where it feels rude to compare one artist to another, it is nearly impossible with The Lemon Twigs. They hold all the best focuses of their references and influences – from the Paul McCartney-tinged Church Bells to the floaty charms of The Beach Boys on My Golden Years. In both instances and for the rest of A Dream Is All We Know a line is drawn between those clear moments of comparative instrumental and vocal styles. Individual enough to stand on their own is how The Lemon Twigs succeed and these sweet pieces remain as charming as they were the last time around. More of the same is the route they travel, and it works. They know what songs they elicit when naming tracks like Sweet Vibration but The Lemon Twigs set themselves apart with a vocal pairing which feels like a step out of modern times. They are not just modelling themselves off the hits of the past but transforming the sound, pushing it to new heights and seeing where it can go. Experimental feels an apt word for it but it does not sound like much risk is taken given how slick and well-produced A Dream Is All We Know is.
Risk is the beating heart of this. The Lemon Twigs may have found a niche but keeping it alive and exciting after Everything Harmony proves a real challenge. They succeed with efforts like In the Eyes of a Girl, a steady psychedelic tinge guiding romanticised vocals which verge on sickly sweet but maintain focus with melodic vocable interjections. Underlying harmonies on How Can I Love Her More? provide the light focus, the upbeat charms and all the tones which made Everything Harmony such a charm. Those flickers of jazz-like keyboard work appear on Peppermint Roses. Make no mistake Brian and Michael D’Addario have a sincere gift. Their desire to adapt the baroque and art rock of the past into compartmentalised, disconnected modern slices is welcome. Where their range is broad their messages and meanings never elevate themselves beyond the usual flickers of love in carefree days, and A Dream Is All We Know serves primarily as rewarding escapism
Closing track Rock On (Over and Over) is just a rejected piece from The Beatles. Every second of its rocking final push feels like a lifted element of this genre or that – and this is the finest part of The Lemon Twigs. Their ability to weave and adapt, adding layer after layer of brass and percussion to their music gives it the blur of historic stylings and modern flourishes needed. Dea Matrona is doing much the same with the UK rock scene and it feels only fair the pair has found a wider audience by recreating a nostalgic and original glance back at their influences. Few can do it as well as The Lemon Twigs and further evidence is provided of their claim to original charms on A Dream Is All We Know, a worthy follow-up to the blistering highs of Everything Harmony.
