"The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know" Chasing Heights It Never Reaches

    Placeholder about white people, otherwise maybe I'll keep this in depending on how much I dislike this album. My friend CJ who is old and white enough to like the Beatles claims this album is pastiche in all of the worst ways possible. My friend Omaid who is also old and pretends to be white likes this band enough to go see them in person. He also likes KISS so I'm not sure how much weight his opinion holds to me. I will say that Fantano technically gave this album a 9, though it was a fake version of him so I have semi-high hopes for this album. If it's anything like Pretty. Odd. Panic! At The Disco or Take a Vacation by the Young Veins I reckon I'll probably like this record enough to give it a half-decent review. I have been listening to more Fleet Foxes and Florence + The Machine lately though so hopefully it gives this record a fighting chance. So without further ado, my track-by-track review.

A Dream Is All We Know - The Lemon Twigs

My Golden Years - 83/100 My barometer for this album will be if it compares well to That Thing You Do! from the movie of the same name. I can definitely see what they're going for though. It's a pretty decent song so far to be honest. I can definitely feel the old school vintage camera filter montage while a roof-down car drives along the California coast in a movie kind of vibe off of this. Actually it made me immediately go listen to That Thing You Do! and appreciate how much catchier it is maybe they'll do better on other songs.

They Don't Know How To Fall In Place - 82/100 This song took a couple of listens for me but I think I would say that the part in the chorus where they go la la la, is really cute in my opinion. I don't think it's as strong as the first track but I'd confidently say that it's grown on me enough to enjoy it.

Church Bells - 40/100 This song is short but not in a good way in the way that the song sounds completely underdeveloped. It's almost as if Dominic Fike decided to try his hand at a Beatles song. The way the verses flow sounds disjointed, the chorus comes in way too soon. After which they play a guitar solo abruptly, that also ends really quickly? Then the key shift also also comes way too quickly. This is kind of really sloppy. Edit: I listened to this track a second time and it's less grating but all of my points still stand.

A Dream Is All I Know - 77/100 When I first heard this band I had told my friend CJ that this band sounds very playlistable, but not in a they're very catchy kind of way, but sort of they fit so well into this one aesthetic they're attempting to recreate and they refuse to create anything that isn't agreeable. I suppose that means the songs usually have a high floor and I usually view them positively, but that also means that they all sort of start to sound samey. And unless you're really good at making catchy tunes it's hard for me to give it a rating higher than a 80 I'd say.

Sweet Vibration - 65/100 The nicest thing I can say about this song is that it maintains the same vibe that the rest of the album is going for, and it doesn't sound as jarring as Church Bells does. At least unlike A Dream Is All I Know this song is shorter?

In The Eyes Of The Girl - 60/100 I feel like this is one of those slow songs where I'm just 50/50 on. Either I really love it and I'll put it in some angsty playlist about longing for some unknown love or I'll just think it's another generic, boring run of the mill slow love song. In this case it's the latter half I'm afraid. 

If You And I Are Not Wise - 60/100 If you're going to make a simple old school pop song it has to be a catchy tune. I mean sure this song sounds nice, and it's not bad, but it simply doesn't do much for me. What is this song even about? 

How Can I Love Her More? - 80/100 I'll say its an improvement from the last couple of songs, I quite like the harmonies in the chorus, and the trumpets that come in at the very end. The part where they say the title of the track is a little cute.

Ember Days - 45/100 I didn't know you could make a song more boring than In The Eyes Of The Girl. I do kind of like the really soft verses with the string instruments playing in the background, but the chorus is so sleepy on this song. Like during the first line of the chorus you think it might go somewhere semi-exciting but it really doesn't and it's easily my least favourite part of this track.

Peppermint Roses - 76/100 This song kind of starts off with like some creepy church in Halloween vibes but it quickly loses it. Like the fact that the chorus is just them doing I sentences in the same note the entire time it kind of kills any momentum the track had. I will say that it is one of the more exciting tracks on this album nonetheless, especially with what they do in the end with the guitar.

I Should've Known Right From The Start - 40/100 This song just straight up sounds bad, especially when they say the line "we should've stayed a world apart". I guess this is what happens when you give a track four verses and no chorus.

Rock On (Over and Over) - 55/100 This album ends off on a stronger note, in the sense that I prefer this song to a lot of the other ones on the album. But of course only in the sense that this song has a pulse, I'm not so sure about the rest of it to be honest. 

Final Score 65/100

    I write this review sorely disappointed. You know I actually had some pretty high hopes for this album. It started off fairly strong, and sonically it is very strong. It's not grating, very agreeable, and the vibe they're going for is very clear. However, instead of receiving what should be a fine, but very consistent album I found a lot more spots where I was left wondering "what?" Don't get me wrong, I do like My Golden Years, and They Don't Know How To Fall In Place, but so many tracks off of this relatively short album fail to establish any sort of catchy footing or pulse to really reel you in as a listener. I mean I'm sure with some of these songs if I listened to them more I'd like them, but I have no interest to re-listening to many of the tracks from this song. I think it's the second half of this album that drags it down I don't think there are that many deep cuts so outside of the beginning of it. I will say though at least it's a fairly short album, especially for one that's 12 tracks, I think if the songs were all longer and it was closer to 40-50 minutes it'd be a much more boring slog. Honestly, the main thing this album has done is make me want to re-watch That Thing You Do! and listen to Pretty. Odd. by Panic! At The Disco. TLDR; just listen to their most popular songs on Spotify, that's pretty much the best it'll ever get with this album


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