The Lemon Twigs proposal has it all. Long Island-born brothers Michael and Brian D’Addario are brilliant songwriters and musicians.
At 24 and 26, they have already released four albums. In their composition, we feel a maturity and a know-how that produce pieces that are always catchy. The difficulties of the pandemic have inspired them with melancholic texts, imbued with existential reflections, which do not prevent a touch of lightness too.
The introduction toEverything Harmony, When Winter Comes Around, is a superb folk ballad, on acoustic guitar, with magical voice effects. Halfway through, a short but punchy musical explosion that shows us from the start just how composite The Lemon Twigs tracks can be.
The album itself is marvelously heterogeneous. After folk, indie pop, with In My Headon bass groovy and the galvanizing “lalala”. Then comes one of the songs with the greatest potential for success, Corner of My Eye. The melody is sumptuous, the main voice is high pitched, while the vaporous harmonies give it a little something extra that makes all the difference. During their Wednesday show in Montreal, The Lemon Twigs had every word of this lovely chorus sung by an audience that knew it by heart.
This performance by The Lemon Twigs is actually one of the best shows we haven’t seen.
You read correctly. We didn’t really see the members of The Lemon Twigs last Wednesday. The show (which was sold out) was at the Ritz PDB, a small venue that does not allow the audience behind to see what is happening on stage. The band, which opened for Arctic Monkeys a few years ago, could surely have filled a larger Montreal venue.
Never mind, the live version of The Lemon Twigs songs are worth experiencing, even with a very largely obstructed view. The rare visual glimpses showed us an energetic band on stage, not very talkative, but solid. The group, which has fun changing instruments throughout the performance, is musically captivating, perfectly rendering these songs that we love on record.
Some common points remain between the different musical explorations that the musicians attempt: irresistible melodies (the D’Addario brothers have a sense of melody that could take them very far), very beautiful harmonies, an omnipresent guitar, which flirts relentlessly with the bass, and a skillful production.
The room Any Time of Dayprecisely in its production, is tinged with a veil which brings it back to its influences, somewhere in the 1970s. sixties and the following decade on the compositions of the Lemon Twigs is great. Often there is not even a modern touch to tie them to our times. It’s retro and it’s assumed.
The Lemon Twigs is (very good) old music from young people. And the public present at the Montreal concert bears witness to this. There were people of all generations, but mostly people of the age of the musicians on stage, many sporting an equally retro look.
But no need to have a hippie look for this music to touch us. Just listen and let yourself be charmed.
Folk-pop-rock
Everything Harmony
The Lemon Twigs
Captured Tracks