Lemon Twigs Look For Your Mind 2026

The Lemon Twigs have been at this gig for ten years, and it seems they just get better. Their last record, A Dream Is All We Know, was outstanding and made my best of 2024 list. This one might even be better. They get labeled power pop, glam rock (they're not really that very often), jangle pop, and several other labels. They define their influences as Beatles and Beach Boys, and bands that were influenced by Beatles and Beach Boys. That sounds about right, and if I needed an easy label, it would still be power pop.

How do you make a Lemon Twigs record? Take portions of several of these bands: Beatles, Beach Boys, Searchers, Byrds, Raspberries, Left Banke, Todd Rundgren, Badfinger, Big Star, Matthew Sweet, Greg Kihn, Rubinoos, Sloan, and Hollies. Mix well, add new lyrics. Next, pick a different three from the list and do it again. Rinse and repeat.

That sounds easy enough, but it's much harder than it sounds. There are plenty of bands that have done this before, but not many have done it as consistently well as the Lemon Twigs. It's actually shocking how well they pull it off. Can you listen carefully and find chord progressions and bits of melody and identify the source? Absolutely. If you want to play that game, you'll have fun. But it won't work all the time. Sometimes you'll just hear those influences blended into something new that can't be referenced, and it's still great. And that's the difference between these guys and Records, Shoes, Spongtones, et.al. They are just plain better at it than the bands that have done this before. Plus, they've got that sibling vocal harmony thing that is clearly genetic and inimitable. Oh, and they have a killer drummer.

I'd do a track-by-track review, but all I really want to do is get you to listen to it. Go listen to it. If you like half the bands in the list above, I'd be stunned to find out you don't like Lemon Twigs. It's just like listening to those bands, but newer.

The Best of 2024

I really shouldn't call it the "Best of". Maybe "My Favorites of 2024" would be better. I've looked at the lists on most of the major music publications, and there's a lot that I haven't heard. I actually got through Charli XCX's Brat, and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter (Beyonce was mildly entertaining). I couldn't make it through Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet. Hey, I don't really like music that is manufactured rather than performed, so there's that. I did appreciate a few songs from contemporary popular artists on a stroll through The Best Songs of 2024 from a mainstream publication, but not enough to run out and buy or bookmark anything. So, here's the one's I liked a lot this year:

The Lemon Twigs A Dream Is All We Know

New York's finest power-poppers come through in spades. Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds, Raspberries, they do it all and make it sound fresh and new.

Fantastic Cat Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat

An indie rock "super group" of singer songwriter multi-instrumentalists makes a rollicking fun record with a positive attitude. Only slightly more rocking than power-pop, think Rockpile, Cheap Trick and a touch of Americana.

The Weeklings Raspberry Park

This one forms a great power-pop triumvirate with the two previous. Weeklings have made their mark as a Beatles cover band, and a really good one. The originals are all solid pop/rock. Super covers of She's Leaving Home and I've Just Seen A Face, and a mash-up of Satisfaction and Mr. Soul that is brilliant.

Nick Lowe Indoor Safari

Not really a new record, but a collection of singles and EPs from the last ten years or so, all done with Los Straightjackets. It's nice to have it all in one place, and they have really become a great band together. The excellent Trombone and Don't Be Nice To Me are standouts, but it's all solid Nick Lowe after ten years since his last LP. 

Bill Charlap Trio And Then Again

Just one great jazz trio doing standards. But with Charlap and his talented sidemen, it is inventive and spontaneous jazz with what Downbeat magazine calls "seamless interaction and extrasensory communication". Great jazz.

Jenny Scheinman All Species Parade

Scheinman has been making interestingly unique jazz for quite a while, and almost all of it is easy to approach and yet challenging in it's own way. Featuring a cast of greats that Scheinmen has worked with before, everything comes out very fine. The sound of a mature artist with ideas to spare.

The Palomar Trio The Song In Our Soul

Hearkening back to the early swing jazz of the 1920s and 1930s, and featuring songs from that era, this record is just a joy. Tap your foot, sway in your chair, and smile, smile smile. 

Louis Cole nothing

Jazz fusion/pop/funk/ electronic/orchestral music. When have you heard that combination before? Louis Cole teams up with the Metropole Orkest jazz orchestra to produce a great record that is a genre to itself.

Continental Drifters White Noise & Lightening: The Best of Continental Drifters

A "best of" from a band that last recorded in 2001. I really loved everything they did (all four records). One of my favorite neglected bands of all time.

Shelby Lynn Consequences of the Crown

We've been waiting for twenty years for I Am Shelby Lynn #2. This isn't quite that, but it is closer than she's ever come, and one heck of a great record. 

St. Vincent All Born Screaming

Another solid outing from Ms. Clark, with great songs, killer vocals, and scary aggression. What can't this woman do with a guitar? 

Vampire Weekend Only God Was Above Us

The smartest indie rock band around gives us a great one, the best since Contra. If you were a little disappointed with Father of the Bride, they are back in spades.

Willis, Carper, Leigh Wonder Women of Country

A six-song EP that lives up to the title. Everything's good, and there's two new ones from Kelly Willis' pen. Carper and Leigh hold up their end of the bargain just fine.

Lance Cowen So Far, So Good

A respected Nashville publicist makes his first record in his sixties. A little bit like a new Guy Clark album sometimes, and of course that is high praise. He can sound a bit like John Denver, and he can get a little twee, but there are lots of great songs and beautifully recorded acoustic instrumentation.

Wings Band On The Run (Underdubbed Mixes)

Often considered McCartney's best Wings/solo effort, it sounds even better stripped of the orchestration. The live-in-the-studio One Hand Clapping from the same time period is big fun too.

John Leventhal Rumble Strip

After producing a gazillion great records, Leventhal steps out on his own. Gentle, lovely, mostly instrumental acoustic gems with two vocals by wife Rosanne Cash. Relax and listen to some darn good music. 

Mark Knopfler One Deep River

Craftsmanship. Since 1996, Knopfler has made one subtly great record after another. Yes, he's a wonderful guitarist, but he's also an equally gifted songwriter, and his singing has a heartfelt and well-worn comfort to it. You can get just over Dire Straits by now. 

The Lemon Twigs A Dream Is All We Know 2024

Power Pop. It has lots of definitions, and lots of examples, some of which I don't always agree should be included in the category/genre. But these guys are Power Pop by just about any definition you can come up with. And they're darn good to boot.

And they're young, two Long Island brothers that write and play fun-filled pop/rock that sounds like the era from the British Invasion to New Wave. They benefit greatly from those wonderful brotherly harmonies that seem to come so easily to people with similar vocal cord DNA. You know, Everly Brothers, Cowsills, Proclaimers, etc. 

And they write catchy, sometimes quirky pop songs that sound just like... In fact, that game can be played, but it's really better to just bob your head or dance around and enjoy a smart band that's fun. The ones that sound like the Beach Boys are the most obvious references, but these guys have been raised on all the best pop-rock music from 1964-1977, and they have taken it all in and made something that's new, and old.

The high energy opener, My Golden Years could be the Searchers. They Don't Know How To Fall In Place is solid pop with glowing harmonies and a nice keyboard solo. The title track is a jangle pop gem with a great hook for a chorus. I Should Have Known Right From The Start is good, and Rock On that closes the record is a great pounding rocker that comes close to a Raspberries hit.

The Beach Boys sound shows up in In The Eyes Of The Girl, which sounds like Brian wrote it, but  Ember Days and Sweet Vibration are only OK, except for the harmonies, which are lovely. A couple of the other ones have an awkward lyrical way with too many syllables for the melody, but that doesn't really ruin them.

They've made five other records since 2015. I hope they're close to this good. That would be a gas.