There are bands who wear their influences lightly and there are bands who practically pin them to the elephant ear lapels of their double-breasted blazers. The Lemon Twigs have always belonged firmly in the latter category, but on Look for Your Mind! they achieved the near-impossible feat of sounding more unmistakably like themselves than ever before.
The Long Island brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario have built their reputation on immaculate craftsmanship, glorious harmonies, and an all-consuming passion for late 1960s and early 1970s pop music. That devotion to the past should feel limiting. Instead, Look for Your Mind! feels vibrant, joyous and utterly alive; less a museum piece than a celebration of the endless possibilities of melody.
From the opening title track, the album bursts with jangling guitars, stacked harmonies, and enough melodic invention to sustain lesser bands for entire careers. The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Big Star are channelled here, yet the Twigs never descend into mere imitation.
Their great skill lies in taking familiar ingredients and twisting arrangements just enough to keep songs surprising. “I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You” is two minutes of pure sunshine pop perfection, all aching hooks and euphoric harmonies, it could have been performed by The Oneders in the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do, while “2 or 3” channels classic AM-radio warmth without ever sounding stale. Elsewhere, “Gather Round” embraces a whimsical McCartney-esque music hall feel and “Mean to Me” drifts beautifully into dreamy psychedelic territory. “Bring You Down” is so Merseybeat you could be back in mid-60s Liverpool.
As the album unfolds it becomes more immersive and intricate with each listen. The affectionate retro worship would be nothing without the sheer quality of the song writing. The melodies arrive relentlessly, choruses blooming one after another with an almost brazen audacity. Even when the band indulge their love of ornate arrangements and stylistic detours, the emotional core remains strong. There is melancholy beneath the sunshine, longing beneath the sweetness.
The addition of touring musicians Reza Matin and Danny Ayala gives the record a fuller, more immediate band feel than some of their earlier releases, helping the songs breathe and occasionally rock harder than expected.
If there is a criticism, it is perhaps that the album occasionally feels almost too packed with ideas. The Lemon Twigs rarely allow a song to settle before introducing another key change, harmony flourish or stylistic turn. Yet that excess is also part of the album’s charm. In an era dominated by less is more aesthetic, Look for Your Mind! revels in abundance.
With fourteen songs averaging under three minutes each, Look For Your Mind! is one of 2026’s most enjoyable albums to date: warm, inventive, and gloriously melodic. The Lemon Twigs may be hopeless romantics in love with the past, but they continue to prove that great pop music never really goes out of style.
The Lemon Twigs begin a short UK tour later this month and details can be found here,
https://www.thelemontwigs.com/tour/
Reviewer – Adrian Cork
On – 13.05.2026
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