The Lemon Twigs aren’t shy about telegraphing their inspirations. A Dream is all we Know, their swift follow-up to last May’s Everything Harmony, is stuffed with references. “Sweet Vibration” is rooted in The Left Banke’s “She May Call You up Tonight.” “In the Eyes of the Girl” draws from The Beach Boys’s “Girls on the Beach.” Album opener “My Golden Years” nods to second album Big Star. Todd Rundgren looms large over the album’s title track.
Brian and Michael D’Addario’s bold fifth album needs, though, to have more going for it than good taste and evidence for a cool record collection to make it possible to get past its inspirations. The markers are a potential barrier to moving beneath the surface. However – and happily – it is possible to hear A Dream Is All We Know as more than a show-and-tell exercise.
The reason for this is threefold. Firstly, the songs are great. “If You and I Are Not Wise” is a mid-tempo power popper in (again) the Big Star bag with a melody as memorable as the high points of The Byrds’s Notorious Byrd Brothers (the arrangement’s country touches enhance the Byrds vibe). “How Can I Love Her More” is so soaring melodically it feels like a Harpers Bizarre/Partridge Family hit that never was. Secondly, the brothers Addario are terrific singers. Whether in harmony or solo, they are as smooth as the top of a kitten's head. Thirdly, it’s all so confident, seemingly so easily realised. The inherent craft is worn lightly. A Dream Is All We Know has no evidence for furrowed brows being essential to its creation.
With each Lemon Twigs album, their profile has risen incrementally. There is no reason why the deft, likeable A Dream Is All We Know shouldn’t continue this upwards trajectory.
