The Lemon Twigs – ‘Everything Harmony’ album review
Everything Harmony is a very clever title. This is, indeed, The Lemon Twigs’ most one-track record to date, using a single acoustic echo chamber throughout and keeping the music light and lilting. However, in typical fashion, a slyness creeps into the songwriting and – like David Lynch’s opening shots of a peaceful murderous suburbia – not everything in this leafy album is as harmonious as it might seem at first. We’re dealing with harmony in the equilibria sense rather than pure saccharine sunshine and sweet rainbows.
The D’Addario brothers are, after all, unreliable narrators, casually glossing over sinister undertones with smiles, pairing serene pillow-propped melodies with the comic disgruntlement of ‘Every Day Is The Worst Day of My Life’ – a track that they tell me is inspired by Jonah Hill’s therapist’s concept of constant work – all making for a unique world of beauty and dark comedy masquerading as a single force of upbeat folky gems.
It’s this quirky style of songwriting that truly soars on the album. Throughout, The Lemon Twigs project sorrow through comedy with such a light touch that it’s like stepping on a loose paving slab on a rainy day and having pocket change and confetti slosh up onto your sock. This adds idiosyncratic depth to the album while the luscious melodies ensure that Everything Harmony will be a timeless fixture of your next 1000 summers.
This sanguine aura starts with the tranquil plucked tones of ‘When Winter Comes Around’ and sustains throughout. Musically, they are more than competent enough to ensure that the melodies never become samey while sustaining the same day-off-in-midweek atmosphere that makes it feel like a uniform piece. Along that journey they stop off at obvious hits like ‘Corner Of My Eye’ – one of the year’s best singles – and slightly rockier departures with The Replacements-like lament ‘What You Were Doing’, creating an array of textures in the rolling bliss.
By their own admission, the album is a spring-like tale of rejuvenation matched with the counterpoint of self-aware struggles and strife. So, you might have blissful moments of melody akin to birdsong and sweet themes of nature run throughout, but they are often pitted by patches of urban woe and the dreaded ways of modern life. These are allowed to exist on the same page without ever approaching anything jarring thanks to the baroque capabilities of the brothers.
Like Brian Wilson at his best, on secretly strange songs like ‘Born To Be Lonely’ and the title track, they often serve up pop that seems so seamless on the surface that it hides the almost-inscrutable musical complexity beneath it all. This presents something that you’ve never heard before in the most natural-feeling fashion that never challenges and always welcomes.
The result is a simple joy born from a duplicitous proposition. It is as light and easy as music gets, but it is also intricate and full of dark depth all whisked to a shimmering height by stunning performances that build to a beautiful zenith when the brothers harmonise themselves—it’s been said once before, and I’ll say it again, there is something simply scientifically stunning about siblings harmonising. In the end, Everything Harmony is an album that does supremely what indie was invented to do: highlight the good times with poppy sunshine and blow away problems on a cool breeze.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.