Going on a decade now, the Lemon Twigs’ Michael and Brian D’Addario have been goosing their obsessively retro DIY craftsmanship with a restless curiosity that refuses to sit still, moving enthusiastically between pop’s power, baroque, glam and psych subgenres. Look For Your Mind! (Captured Tracks) continues the four-year creative spike that began with 2023’s Everything Harmony and accelerated with 2024’s universally acclaimed A Dream Is All We Know. This time, the New York-based siblings set out to bottle more of the energy that makes their live performances such a trip, leaning hard into the guitars even as they expand their tinkering in the studio.
Look For Your Mind! also marks a subtle shift in the Lemon Twigs’ previously self-contained work habits, with members of their live band joining in for some of the tracking, along with Tchotchke’s Eva Chambers. Beneath the expected bright hooks and classicist sonic architecture runs an anxious undercurrent to reflect the unhinged times we live in.
Here’s a full rundown of the album from Brian D’Addario.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Michael’s Song”
“The first song recorded for this record set the tone for the sessions. We really wanted this album to have an exciting, guitar-driven pop sound closer to how we are onstage. The lyrics have to do with holding onto your sanity—and the psychedelic production choices go with the theme. That’s a baritone fuzz guitar drowned in plate reverb at the end. It’s me on drums and Michael on guitars.”
2) “2 Or 3”
“We played for the first time in Buenos Aires last year, and I woke up the next morning having dreamt the chorus. It’s a rare thing for me—and even rarer that I end up remembering the words. I had to interpret what ‘she’s lived two or three as many lives as me’ meant. It made me think of a guy who wasn’t cultured or intelligent enough for his girlfriend and had to pretend to be interested in fine art and history. I finished it in the next week and demoed it in a hotel in Geneva. I’m playing all the instruments on this one except for the woodwinds and strings, and it’s Michael and I singing.”
3) “Nothin’ But You”
“We cut this with Tchotchke’s Eva Chambers on bass, me on drums and Michael on guitar. The three of us are singing harmonies. Tracking the basic instruments at the same time, as opposed to overdubbing each instrument separately, is great for arranging a song like this.”
4) “Gather Round”
“As much as we might want a charismatic leader to help us out of the current political situation, it looks like collective action is the only way to see a better future. Strikes and protest directly confronting the power structure seem to be the only tools to bring about any change. This song deals with that yearning for leadership and guidance and the realization that you can’t wait around for it. Musically it took shape as a turn-of-the-century campaign song. I played everything apart from the woodwinds and brass.”
5) “I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You”
“Another one tracked with Eva. Just over two minutes long, the structure is pretty unusual but has a natural flow at the same time. Michael has a ton of songs that lock heavily into this pre-psychedelic, mid-’60s feel. The way the bridge modulates for a second before coming back to the key totally knocks me out. And the way he arranged the three of our voices to build at the end of the song has such a euphoric feeling.”
6) “Fire And Gold”
“This was tracked with Reza Matin from our live band on drums and Michael on bass. It’s a cross between the open Pete Townshend riffs of the mid-’60s and Todd Rundgren’s early-’80s Utopia chord shapes. Vocally, I was inspired by the great Irish singer Paul Brady—particularly his rendition of ‘Arthur McBride.’ Paul D. Millar helped us achieve the flanging that brings out the metaphysical quality of the lyric.”
7) “Mean To Me”
“What struck me about the way Michael arranged this one is the garage-y backing combined with the choral harmonies. I added the more classical keyboard touches on the organ and harpsichord toward the end. Danny Ayala from the live group sang with Michael and me to get a fuller vocal sound. This is one of Michael’s best lead vocals on the record.”
8) “Bring You Down”
“I was listening to a lot of Eddie Cochran and wanted to write a modern ‘Summertime Blues.’ If he wrote that song today, I think, it wouldn’t have as carefree a nature. I was thinking of Amazon workers who get spied on and fired if they make efforts to unionize—and the push to replace the already-immiserated working class with AI. Even as an artist, you’re in danger of being replaced in this new world the tech oligarchs are building. We started playing this one at shows before we recorded it, so we ended up tracking it with Reza and Danny.”
9) “Yeah I Do”
“The lead vocal, guitar, bass and drums were all tracked live—Michael on guitar, me on bass and Reza on drums. Great scream from Michael in the bridge.”
10) “I Hurt You”
“The verse is very early-’60s pop, and the chorus has almost Brazilian bossa-nova chords—so finding an arrangement that made the song feel like one piece was a challenge. The guitar sound Michael got is one of my favorite aspects of the song. The synth sounds I like are usually ones that remind me of voices and violins. Before the choruses, I did the opposite, trying to make my voice sound like a synthesizer.”
11) “You’re Still My Girl”
“The backing track was cut live in the studio with Reza and Danny. We’d been working this one out on the road for about a year now, so this only took a few takes to lay down. Danny and Reza both sing with us on the choruses.”
12) “Joy”
“This one came easily and is a self-explanatory metaphor for depression. I really wanted the orchestration to be central to this one, so I got Sammy Weissberg to help. We collaborated on finding the perfect balance between a romantic, jazzier sound and starker, simpler, baroque harmonies.”
13) “My Heart Is In Your Hands Tonight”
“This was cut in the same session as ‘Yeah I Do.’ Reza does some of his best drumming on this one, and Michael some of his best singing. The melody to the chorus is one of my favorites from Michael.”
14) “Your True Enemy”
“Probably one of the weirder tracks on the record, it’s about being your own worst enemy and trying to blame anyone but yourself for your misery. Our dad, Ronnie, was visiting while we were working on this. When he used to play with Tommy Makem, he’d always hear Tommy perform this Yeats poem ‘When You Are Old.’ We flipped the tape around and recorded him reciting it while we went around the studio hitting drums and playing trumpet and recorder. Lastly, with Paul, we decided to desecrate the mix in its last minute with various studio tricks. Paul’s ingenious tape manipulation helped us achieve the effect of someone turning off the record like a television at its noisy climax. I’m hoping to explore more of these textural sonics on the next record we make.”
See the Lemon Twigs live.
