Album Review: The Lemon Twigs - Songs For The General Public

Lemon Twigs’ first record, Do Hollywood, heralded the arrival of teenaged brothers who had apparently been steeped in the music of Harry Nilsson, Todd Rundgren, and Brian Wilson since birth. The follow-up, Go To School, continued the streak, and was easier to digest as a set of songs if one discreetly ignored the adopted-chimpanzee-turns-homicidal-burns-the-school-runs-off concept. On album number three, they’ve reached some sort of seventies pop n’ roll nirvana that will be welcomed by a certain type of music fan - the kind I regularly see in the mirror - like several Christmases coinciding.

Witness the glory of the opening ‘Hell On Wheels’ - hold on, I have to go and listen to it again - as the D’Addario brothers cruise around town looking for kicks, with Bowie, Ronson, and Mott all fighting for space in the back seat of their El Dorado. Talking of the back of a car, ‘Live In Favour Of Tomorrow’ steals Big Star’s keys and heads off down the highway, and ‘No One Holds You (Closer Than The One You Haven’t Met)' gets the seventies pop sound so right, it’s a wonder it hasn’t shown up on the Walkman of yer man in Guardians Of The Galaxy.

‘Fight’ and ‘Moon’ both ouija board up Spector’s girl-group sound by way of New York Dolls, complete with Johansen’s sneer and Thunder’s six-string snarl, and a young Springsteen apparently wanders in off the street for the harmonica break on the latter. He then hangs around to add a Darkness era guitar to ‘The One’. Here, look at the cut of the two lads in this clip. Glorious.

We get to end of the record, by way of the Wilson weird-out of ‘Why Do Lovers Hurt Each Other?’ and the pummelling ‘Leather Together’, only to find the ghost of Lou Reed has shown up for ‘Ashamed’.

Mind you, it’s not just a spot-the-ball competition, for The Twigs have corralled their influences, proudly displayed on their collective sleeves, into something joyous and special: a rock n’ roll treasure trove, replete with shiny song writing doubloons.

Young, skinny, and talented, with great hair - The Lemon Twigs truly sicken me. Seriously though, do yourself a favour, go and buy it.