The Lemon Twigs

Several albums into their career, The Lemon Twigs finally feel unencumbered by expectation. Usually that equation works in reverse, but the band’s early days always felt like they were under the microscope, tugged between their inspirations and the tastes of the time. As they crested into their Captured Tracks years, that self-consciousness faded and the band embraced a bigger, more potent vision of power pop. As the band’s alluded, they started making records that they’d want to listen to, the kind of ‘60s/‘70s sunshine gems that were ensconced in harmony, honey, and sunlight. Everything Harmony hinted at the freedom, but it really broke open on last year’s A Dream Is All We Know. Now, the studio has become a playground as the band looks to the most ornate corners of their personal collection to create an album that feels dipped in joy and driven by a pure pop engine.

The album marks the full band finally hitting the studio. Rather than translate the brothers’ sequestered songwriting to a larger scale for the stage, they’ve brought live regulars Danny Ayala and Reza Matin into the studio with them. The dynamic opens the record up, feeling bigger, brighter, and bolder. Both Ayala and Matin hold down their own indelible corners of pop, solo and with Uni Boys respectively, and they bring an electricity to the sessions that gives the record the last shove over the wall into complete classic territory. Every song on Look For Your Mind! feels like the band is having the best time, which, given the meticulous nature of the arrangements is some feat. From Badfinger buoyancy to Brian Wilson curios, the band digs out the past and makes it feel timeless. They pine with a deeper sigh, they rip through rock that knocks the modern morass, and they stick it to the speakers in harmonies that burrow so deep under the skin they might never leave. A gorgeous gem for the pop collectors that takes quite few of its inspirations to the mat.

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