There’s a recurring debate about what consists originality in pop music. Can an artist only be considered original by coming up with grand musical ideas that have not been heard before, or does picking up on ideas from a previous era and then bringing in something of their own count too?
Why does all this have something to do with Look For Your Mind!, the new album by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, aka The Lemon Twigs? Simply for the fact that since their 2016 debut Do Hollywood, through the four albums and an EP that followed up to this new offering, the brotherly duo had some doubters (albeit not that many) who proffered that The Lemon Twigs might do it good, but they offer only old sounds.
So let us start there. Simply refurbishing old ideas is quite legitimate thing in modern music just by itself, and yes, D’Addario brothers rely heavily on quite a few sounds that went on before them – chiefly the Beach Boys and The Beatles – but with quite a few caveats there.
First of all, Brian and Michael have digested those sounds to the core, which was the first condition for them to come up with some substantial and meaningful music. In fact, the duo have actually excelled so far at making all the sunshine pop, harmony rock, power pop, melodic rock that packs their releases sound unlike a rehash of bygone days, but actually brand spanking new.
Secondly, they do make music that is truly their own, and that is evident through each and every of the 14 tracks of this new album. You can sense where they are coming from, but you simply cannot pinpoint any other artist or band as their sole inspiration. Sure everybody from The Beatles and Beach Boys remain chief hallmarks, but instead of copying complete vocal or chord changes, it sounds like the brothers have finely shredded somebody else’s work, tossed it up in the air, picked up the pieces and then randomly arranged them into their songs.
Yet, saying they do it “randomly” isn’t really fair. Nothing here sounds random or haphazard at all, but rather an almost perfectly concocted pop/rock with some gorgeous harmonies to boot – whether it is the opening title track, mid-album highlight “Fire And Gold” or closing “Your True Enemy.” And each and every song sounds meticulously envisioned and performed, whether it is something with a bit of a tempo like “Bring You Down” or a through and through ballad like “Mean To Me”, it just sounds like the D’Addario brothers have songwriting and performing in their small fingers. They give it all on Look For Your Mind! – and it all sounds like they have found what they were looking for.
