The Lemon Twigs - Everything Harmony

The Lemon Twigs made themselves easy to pigeonhole when they first arrived on the scene in 2016, so much so that you might have missed how handsomely they’ve matured as songwriters in the interim. Debut ‘Do Hollywood’ announced them to the world as dewy-eyed ‘60s revivalists, while follow-up ‘Go to School’ made more of a wave for its conceptual nature than its musical content, and ‘Songs for the General Public’ lent so hard into classic rock that it almost became pastiche. This fourth record, though, offers immediate vulnerability in its sparse arrangements and, in doing so, highlights the intelligence and nuance with which brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario now mine their influences. There is a genuine timelessness to the thirteen tracks of ‘Everything Harmony. Many are lovelorn, particularly the standout ‘What Happens to a Heart’, which pairs swooning strings with soaring vocals to deliver the kind of breakup lament that any ‘60s pop star would have killed for. Elsewhere, they process the depths of depression with gorgeous melodic sensibility on ‘Every Day Is the Worst Day of My Life’, and nod to more recent inspirations on ‘What Were You Doing’, which is loose and jangly in its guitars. ‘Everything Harmony’ has the feel of a classic about it. Previously, comparisons to Simon and Garfunkel felt superficial; on this evidence, The Lemon Twigs are truly operating on that level.