Any new release featuring harmonies and guitars going for the jangular is inevitably going to get reviewers namechecking sixties acts, the most obvious first, chased by whatever other groups the reviewer has heard of. But harmony is timeless, the craft of pop songwriting as wide open as it ever was, and to pigeonhole this fine album is in some ways to diminish its considerable achievements. It has melodies like an orange has juice, more variety than a Kelloggs six pack, and arrangements that delight and surprise – there’s no opportunity for improvement they’ve missed. Nothing here that hasn’t been done before – but that’s not the brief they were working to. Make pop music superb, make it fun, make it just as clever and sophisticated as it needs be without getting pretentious, in twelve songs.
I’ve followed the Twigs from the start of their career (the brothers in their teens), but this is the first time they’ve delivered the total goods on their promise. Their last, much lauded critically, was too mired in downbeat misery, and thankfully they’ve left that right behind them. A bunch of timeless pop songs to make you feel good.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/02/lemon-twigs-michael-brian-daddario-interview
It’s behind a paywall but the reviewer (as noted previously, a young (well, not so young) relation of mine) in today’s Times agrees with you
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/040c6f2b-34ed-4c63-a3dc-f1bbf4ae50ea?shareToken=70592192cd09efa1784b46674cddc8de
Behind a paywall? It’s th’ Graun, fercrissakes! Link works fine for me (and, I suspect, anyone else who could handle Scalextric as a kid).
Had a snigger at that one… sorry Lodes.
My link to The Times, youse wallies
Unless, of course it’s a sly pisstake of a simpleton from Aberdeen….
Lodey, your Times link isn’t behind a paywall either. Is everything okay at home?
I very cleverly unpaywalled The Times link using technology far beyond the grasp of The Common Man
https://12ft.io/ clambers over any paywall. They very cleverly say it’s for “cleaning” websites, but we know better.
Lost me at “prepend”
… by which time you’d already scrolled past all you need to know and do, you twerp. This is like Scalextric all over again.
The scalextrix reference.
Told you I was a simpleton
I never got on with the hump back bridge, though. It looked pretty but you had to slow to a crawl well in advance. Nor that stupid gimmick track piece that allowed you flip your opponent’s car off the track. Good lord – it’s raining!
Good stuff. There’s something rather XTC/Squeeze/Jellyfish about that, so I’m in.
Lots of High Llamas in there too – not a bad thing at all. I bought ‘Go To School’, but they have been left outside staring through the railings onto my musical playground in more recent times. Thanks for the heads-up HP, based upon that little ditty above I think I may invest again.
And thanks for the ‘downbeat misery’ warning regarding their previous release; I’m not a fan of that, thank you very much. Good God, no – I once wasted fifteen quid on a Richmond Fontaine dirgefest and thoroughly regretted it.
Their last one got a rave from the Guradian, too, but it was far from being the “new Simon & Garfunkel”. One song was “this is the worst day of my life” repeated for what seemed like an entire rainy Bank Holiday weekend in Machynleth and I genuinely felt betrayed after the trust and good will I’d given them picking it up at the Eel Market. But this is the bollocks of a Crufts Best Of Breed.
I once made the same mistake with a Richmond Fontaine album. I bought it based on hearing one track on (I think) an Uncut cover CD.
I see that this phenomenon is now mentioned in the new “Album Tracks That Provide Contrast” OP.
Thank you so much, Saucy! Where have they been all my life?
This is from their previous album.
I know.
I’ll be 67 later this year. Their previous album (along with all their others) falls within my lifespan.
‘Ave you ‘ad your dinner yet?
I’ve just had lunch, if that helps…
Listening now and, while pleasant, it has that late 60s/early 70s mashup feel of their previous few albums. Literally every sound, couplet, melodic interval has been pulled from the pantheon and surgically fused. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it tends to frictionlessly wash over rather than lodge in the brain.
“Literally every sound, couplet, melodic interval has been pulled from the pantheon and surgically fused.”
Welcome to music.
Looking forward to hearing this one. Apart from being a couple of songs too long, I thought they’d finally nailed it on Everything Harmony, and that the sheer musical skill (and joy!) silenced any accusations of ‘retro’. I really like the ‘singles’ from A Dream so far, but my fear is that upbeatedness (and the videos!) are maybe too much ammo for the retro police. Not that I care personally – I’m pro-Twig – but I’ve always felt them undervalued and would hate that they get dismissed by a wider audience by leaning into the more obvious 60s vibes. Again, this might be the vids rather than just the songs.
“Going for the jangular”. Superb. And nicked. Or stephened, as it is now called.
“Stephened”. Superb. And nicked.
By far my favourite band of the last ten years.
Saw them last night at the Oxford O2 and they were excellent: largely sticking to the last 2 albums as far as I could tell, and props to the soundman. Anyone else find it amusing that their names are Brian and Michael? Just me then.