The prodigiously-talented duo first emerged as The Lemon Twigs in 2016 with their debut LP Do Hollywood, whose show-stopping melodies mined from every era of rock quickly earned fans in Elton John, Questlove, and Jack Antonoff. Go To School, the ambitious fifteen-track coming-of-age opus followed in 2018 and solidified the band’s reputation for building grand walls of sound around an audacious concept. 2020’s Songs For The General Public earned critical praise from NPR, Vice, Teen Vogue, Stereogum and more. The pair recently worked on Weyes Blood’s two most recent albums including 2022’s And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow as well as with classic rock hero Todd Rundgren on his most recent record, Space Force and with Tim Heidecker on his Fear of Death project.
The upcoming project from The Lemon Twigs is their fourth full-length LP Everything Harmony - offering thirteen original servings of beauty that showcase an emotional depth and musical sophistication far beyond their years as a band, let alone as young men. While they eagerly devour musical influences from everything and everywhere, they have somehow arrived at a cohesive and dynamic sound that speaks to our troubled times.
On Everything Harmony, the brothers have fully realized that vision, with a unified “Lemon Twigs sound” that successfully blends their distinct personalities while giving voice to their diverse and eclectic influences. Opening the album with the unassuming acoustic folk of plaintive “When Winter Comes Around,” which echoes the sophisticated grandeur of classic Simon & Garfunkel recordings, they immediately switch things up to the sunny classic pop motif of “In My Head.” From that point on, Everything Harmony makes it clear that the Lemon Twigs can’t be pinned down.
"The album cycles through moments of depression and isolation on songs like 'What Happens To A Heart,' or 'Born To Be Lonely' to episodes of dizzying euphoria in 'Ghost Run Free' or the title track. There’s very little middle ground. On 'What Happens to A Heart' we were going for a 70’s Spector vibe, along the lines of Leonard Cohen’s Death Of A Ladies Man. We tracked it with me on piano, Daryl Johnson electric bass and Michael and Andres Valbuena both playing drums. I overdubbed a fretless bass.Two pianos, two organs, a harpsichord, and a celeste. The basic track was done in New York, and strings and French horn were recorded in San Francisco. We got the Friction Quartet to overdub themselves about 8times to get a more symphonic sound. We also recorded about eight acoustics and bounced them down to two tracks; we did the same with the electric guitars."
Everything Harmony is a unified song cycle born of shared blood and a common purpose. With two musical heads being better than one, there’s no shortage of ideas to draw on. Their only impediments are time and the challenge of keeping up with their own prolific musical inspiration.
Listen to The Lemon Twigs' music, check out tour dates + keep up with them below!
THE LEMON TWIGS
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