the lemon twigs
The 30 Best Albums of 2020
After a deluge of canceled or delayed tours, drive-in experiments, Bandcamp Fridays and bedroom livestreams, we’re finally here. Yay? It’s hard to celebrate much of anything in 2020. But one encouraging sign from the music industry has been the number of artists innovating on the fly — figuring out ways to sustain their careers through the madness. And as fans, at least we’ve had new albums to help us process our continuing semi-apocalypse. Having (mercifully) reached the end of this awful year, we have even more perspective on the functionality of a great record. The 30 we’ve assembled here have prompted us to dance, helped us grieve, made us laugh, or even just allowed us to escape into a transportive riff or soundscape. We assume they did the same for the artists themselves. Let us reme...
The Lemon Twigs on Their Brotherly Balance, Unorthodox Love Songs, Elton John Praise
Brian D’Addario, 23, and his brother Michael, 21, were still teenagers when they signed with legendary indie label 4AD and released their debut album as The Lemon Twigs, co-produced by Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado. The Long Island siblings are both singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists who expertly evoke the sound and spirit of ‘60s and ‘70s rock at its most melodic — and they’ve already impressed heroes like Todd Rundgren and Elton John. But their recently issued third album, Songs for the General Public, is the kind of confident step into a brighter spotlight that its title implies — the sound of former teen prodigies now in the prime of their talents. Brian D’Addario spoke to SPIN about how their new album contrasts with their last effort, the whimsical 2018 rock opera Go To School, ...
