The Lemon Twigs – Look for Your Mind! Review

That ongoing likability The Lemon Twigs has kindled over the last few years still remains. Look for Your Mind!, their latest album, pools all those usual tropes and stylings that cemented The Lemon Twigs as a reliable source of nostalgic, 1960s pop with a twinge of modern stylings. They may present themselves as an of-the-times band who were tinkering away at this new album in a room over from The Beach Boys, but their sound is far richer and deeper than that. The Lemon Twigs show as much on Look for Your Mind!, a suitable follow-up to their A Dream is All We Know release. Time flies, and the band has hit a steady pace of release, tour, release. Brian D’Addario put out a charming solo album in the interim, but it’s back to all things lemon and twigs for Brian and the gang. Look for Your Mind! will be a winner for those already established fans. What worked for them is still intact. But it’s the new listener, the first timer, that may find a lot to love with this latest from The Lemon Twigs.  

They’re in that psychedelic-tinged era. The Lemon Twigs are reliving the highs of the 1960s without the necessities of LSD. They heed the warning Joan Didion offered on the state of the summer of love, and in turn, it makes for some neat, contemporary adaptations to the tone of the swinging sixties. Look for Your Mind, the title track that is, offers a sharp overview of what The Lemon Twigs are getting up to. The upbeat thrills of A Dream is All We Know are swapped out for the melodic softness. What makes that all the better is the instrumental blowout, unexpected and staggering. Some may feel this is out of place, others will be delighted by the shock turn, the latter listeners will be utterly delighted by this offering from The Lemon Twigs. Those hearty, harmonising pieces like 2 or 3 are well-placed, but the band has put their audience on alert. When will the lighter touches fall again to the heavy thrills of rock and roll? It’s the excitement of expectation that wins out here.  

What The Lemon Twigs has offered consistently now is an adaptation of old stylings. This is not wearing the skin of a popular band no longer together, this is finding a new love and life in classic sounds which are not nostalgia bait, but recognised for their iconic, mood-setting style. Look for Your Mind! walks a fine line of familiar-sounding instrumental works and vocal highs, but it never quite falls for the nostalgic buzz of the times. The Lemon Twigs has maintained that well on previous albums, but they test the waters a little bolder than usual here. Gather Round has a familiarity that almost absorbs the point of love heard on the song, but it’s held together well. Notes of peace on earth and likeable, loved-up writing is what mark the core of these songs, I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You and Fire and Gold are held up by the strong guitar work.  

Look for Your Mind! is good work by the band, but it isn’t as charmed or as encapsulating as their previous albums. When the similarities and style is so familiar, it’s harder on each successive release to recapture the magic. The Lemon Twigs just about manage it here. What it sounds like, more than anything on songs like Bring You Down, is that the band are interested in exploring the doo-wop thrills that inspired their biggest influences. It’s a much nicer listen when you realise that’s what’s at play here. Yeah I Do is a real high for the band. Vocally impressive, instrumentally natural, it all comes together in the latter half of Look for Your Mind!. Nice work the whole way through, though it seems The Lemon Twigs are reaching the limits of how they can adapt and expand those ‘60s tones.