Hi everyone, Headthony Mindtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Lemon Twigs album, Look For Your Mind!

Here is the sixth full-length album from Long Island sibling music duo The Lemon Twigs, who have come quite a long way in their songwriting and sound since their debut, Do Hollywood, about 10 years ago. If you're unfamiliar with these guys, they are pretty well known in the underground for their pop and rock revivalist vibes, dealing mostly in ideas and influences from the '60s and '70s. I was aware of them for a while, but was waiting for that moment when they would really, like, stop me in my tracks creatively.

And that eventually did come in the form of 2023's Everything Harmony, a record that I'm still very much crazy about to this day. Just wall-to-wall great songwriting, diving straight into an often overlooked and derided genre, soft rock. Then immediately after this record, in 2024, the Twigs followed that album up with the impressive A Dream Is All We Know, which very much saw them going back to a lot of their home base influences in psychedelic and sunshine pop, with some touches of baroque and jangle here and there too.

And now, about two years later here, their follow-up, Look For Your Mind, expands more deeply into their '60s pop and rock influences, and was once again recorded to analog tape, which the duo holds kind of near and dear to their sound and creative process.

I should also note, since the release of A Dream Is All We Know, one half of the duo, Brian D'Addario, dropped a solo record. They also took part in producing an album for their father, who is a songwriter and musician himself. And these guys also had a cool couple of feature spots vocally on the new Thundercat record as well. And also, while past albums from The Lemon Twigs have pretty much just been handled by Michael and Brian themselves, this record also brings in some input and performances from touring members Danny and Reza, with Tchotchke bassist Eva Chambers too, who also did the cover of this album. Many of the arrangements on these songs are based off of road performances that these guys have hammered out on stage after stage, but still plenty of cuts on this record are, you know, just kind of standard Michael and Brian doing their own thing together too.

As far as the direction of this album overall though, I see the Lemon Twigs are kind of hitting a lot of the same pockets they've been known to, especially on their last record. Which is fine, while I do find Michael and Brian's continual exercise in nostalgia to be entertaining, certainly it sets them apart from much of the indie set these days who are focused on reliving the '90s. But I've mostly come to love The Lemon Twigs' work through the growth and improvements that we've seen on the songwriting side of things over their past few records. And it's almost a testament to how good their songwriting is that I enjoy The Lemon Twigs and what they do separately from some of their biggest and most classic influences, be it either The Beatles or Beach Boys.

Right out of the gate, though, I will say, there are at least some tracks on this record where the melodies, the lyrics, don't really outshine the vintage aesthetics. Strangely, the opening title track is one of those moments. Despite it being given this note of prominence, it's actually one of the least distinct cuts on this album. Between "looking for your mind" and "dogs having their day," the lyrics are just about as cliché as the buzzing guitars that are the backbone for much of this track. Really, the production and performance are the only saving graces to this cut.

By contrast, I love the song "2 or 3" a lot more. It's a really cute tune about feeling inadequate in a relationship because the other person is so much more experienced and maybe even more traveled than you. And not only is it interesting how this dynamic gets painted by the song's lyrics, but the song has an addictively catchy chorus to boot that is backed up with these cute little glockenspiel melodies and woodwinds too. It's very Brian Wilson pop orchestra energy. The song "Nothin' But You" is decently hooky as well, but with much more explosive drums and really fiery, searing guitars and riffs.

Meanwhile, "Gather Round" tones things down with a more jaunty number, with saloon-style pianos, showtune horns. It's very McCartney all around, but the real selling point of the track for me are its lyrics, which give a heartwarming assurance of love, but in kind of a unity sense? Talking about a lack of trust being fixed by stuff like understanding and togetherness, community. It's a really adorable song, honestly. But I admit, I almost enjoy hearing more the boys kind of heartaching over these silly romantic follies, not just on "2 or 3" but also on the equally catchy "I Just Can't Get Over Losing You"—easily one of the most hilarious songs on the album as well.

As far as the second half of this album is concerned, The Lemon Twigs start dishing out some ballads and moments where they zig when you think they might zag instead. "Mean to Me" is a very somber Brian Wilson-type moment, and it's not a bad one at that. I love the sentiment of the message, but just wish instrumentally it developed a bit more before the fizzle-out ending. Then"Bring You Down" is a loud, blaring, fiery surf rocker with a blue collar bent, which actually makes this a kind of interesting spin on an old idea. It's a track that's all about the rent going up, being paid crap at your job, being replaced by a machine.

I mean, the main refrain of this song is literally "You know that the man was made just to bring you down." Like I said, there are some pastiche-y moments in the second half of this thing that I'm not too crazy about, but at the very least are passable.

The song "Yeah I Do" reminds me very much of early Of Montreal in that it's a '60s reference points are really so vague they're hard to describe. The performance and production feels a little half-baked or scant in comparison to other tracks here, too. Really, in my opinion, it's the least essential cut here.

Then, between the glossy synthesizers and sparkling guitars of "I Hurt You," we're kind of hearing the soft rock energy of Everything Harmony return at least a little bit. Maybe not with the same potency, though, and the end result is a track that kinda feels like it could have been placed as the theme to an '80s sitcom. Very similar vibes coming off the track "You're Still My Girl" too, but the bright stacked vocal harmonies and chorus on this track are so irresistible that I really can't deny the sentimentality and cheese this one is bringing to the table. I absolutely love it.

Meanwhile, "Joy" is not only a big switch-up, but kind of refreshing to hear the boys take on what feels like a very low-key, Paul Simon-influenced ballad, which reaches a very subtle but gorgeous horn-backed finale, which might actually be one of the most emotional emotional highlights of a Lemon Twigs song to date.

As far as the final cuts on this record are concerned, I have some slightly mixed feelings. "My Heart Is In Your Hands Tonight" is one of the more derivative cuts on this record, in my opinion, but also feels like an echo of an echo in an interesting way. I mean, not only do you have those standard '60s pop-rock callbacks going on on the production side, but also, the vocal harmonies and interplay are very much giving doo-wop. The chord progression too, I would say. The song structure itself is absolutely killer, love the multifaceted build of it, and it all comes to a very beautiful swell at the finish. Even if The Lemon Twigs do have some very obvious touchstone moments and inspirations they put on tracks like this, the way they put it all together is just so intricate and so skilled, you can't help but be in awe if you actually care about songwriting.

Meanwhile, the closer, while maybe not my favorite tune on this record, still reaches a very interesting peak between its performance and production, between all of these mutated and melty layers of vocals and strings, as well as pitched and reversed sound effects, too, which leaves the record off on a very weird, surreal, and abstract note. Really the sorts of sounds I wouldn't mind hearing The Lemon Twigs mess with more in the future, given modern recording technology and the hindsight of sort of being so well-versed in this era of peak psychedelic music they pull from so often.

But yeah, even if in some respects I might find this album to be less impressive than Lemon Twigs' past two, I still loved it quite a bit, and I am happy to ride for another stop further down the line on The Lemon Twigs nostalgia train, 'cause the songs and production just continue to be so good. And when it comes to kind of reviving and pulling from this era, no one right now is doing it like the Twigs.

Though, like with Everything Harmony, it would be interesting once again to hear them kind of dive a bit deeper into some of these sounds specifically for the entirety of an album, or unearth another era in pop and rock in the past that kinda has gone overlooked for a long time. Very much feeling a light 8 on this album, and I'm gonna leave it there.

Anthony Fantano. Lemon Twigs. Forever.