Look For Your Mind!

The two previous Captured Tracks albums A Dream Is All We Know (2024) and Everything Harmony (2023) certainly indicated something of a ground zero in The Lemon Twigs’ then five album career. “We started making records that we would listen to ourselves,” says Michael D’Addario, the younger Twig brother, now aged 26. “We were forced to slow down and reevaluate who we were in 2020. Around that time, we tried to assess what we could do better than other groups, particularly in the studio. The live gigs had been getting crazier and crazier, and with no prospect of playing shows we thought it was the perfect time to make something a little more delicate, and to exploit particularly Brian's strengths. We decided to put all our efforts into making something powerful, and that’s how Everything Harmony came to be.” The album was a critic’s.By the time of A Dream Is All We Know, the future Michael classic ‘My Golden Years’, which opens the album and also received a single release and a superb video, The Lemon Twigs new era had truly begun.And now comes the third Lemon Twigs album for Captured Tracks, Look For Your Mind!, which follows on from standalone single ‘I’ve Got A Broken Heart’ / ‘Friday (I’m Gonna Love You)’, the first new release in two years, discounting Brian’s excellent solo album, Till The Morning (2025). For lovers of the slightly psychedelic / folk-rock / garage-pop that the band touched upon on their last long-player, this pairing was a delight. Would the forthcoming album follow in this style? “I think we went into the record hoping that every song was going to be in a guitar pop style,” explains Brian of their initial intentions, but being The Lemon Twigs this wasn’t going to happen. How could it?Underneath its poppy exterior, Look For Your Mind! contains an undercurrent of paranoia and suspicion. “I do think that now is a time of insanity,” admits Brian after pausing for thought. “You really have to hold onto your own mind if you don’t wanna lose it.”Opening with title track ‘Look For Your Mind’, a jangly Michael number, the listener is introduced to the guitar-driven harmony sound that is the centering theme of the album. Brian plays drums, bass and fuzz guitar. Michael adds the lead and rhythm guitars. Michael takes the lead, but as the song progresses the vocals are shared. Much of what was achieved on A Dream Is All We Know is here, just more laser focused. It’s classic Twigs, indebted to the golden age of guitar pop, but in no way slavish.The distinctly optimistic teenbeat of the period is continued with Brian’s ‘2 or 3’; a bouncy pop number, where the brothers make up a two-man wrecking crew in order to construct their very own wall of sound. “When we played in Argentina, I fell asleep after the show and woke up with the chorus in my head,” says Brian. “I dreamt the melody with the lyric, so now I had to figure out what it was about. It concerns a guy who's not intelligent or cultured enough for his girlfriend. We're both always trying to write something where you can condense the meaning into a single sentence. A simple pop concept.”‘Nothin’ But You’ returns to the Twigs in power pop mode – a style that’s nowhere near as easy to put together as the listener may think. “These types of songs are definitely tough to perfect,” states Michael. “You can go very wrong very quickly in the overdub world. It’s tempting to opt for something more complex, but it isn’t always needed. I had a chance to develop these guitar parts, three or so years ago, playing a show with Brian and Eva Chambers (Tchotchke) as The Michael D’Addario Trio. There are a few tunes on the record we did with this trio lineup.”As well as Eva’s participation, Look For Your Mind! marks the studio debut of live Twigs Reza Matin (drums) and Danny Ayala (bass.) With the brothers previously having handled everything in the studio themselves, this offered a newfound sense of freedom. “Seven of the tunes were just Michael and I,” ponders Brian, “‘Nothin’ But You’ and ‘I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You’ had Eva joining us on bass and vocals, like on the single earlier this year. The rest of the tracks had Reza on drums, with Danny joining in on ‘Bring You Down’ and ‘You’re Still My Girl.’ They helped us finally capture that vital live sound on record.”The album was once again recorded in the brothers’ tiny recording space in Brooklyn. “It's pretty terrible to have more than just Brian and me there,” laughs Michael. “It’s 400 square feet and there’s nowhere to sit with all the studio equipment. You end up getting a lot done just because you wanna get the hell out of there. But we have had a lot of fun late-night jams there with Reza.”‘Gather Round’ is one of Look For Your Mind!’s bigger productions. A Brian song with joyous orchestrations, it feels like a turn of the century campaign song. The writer is looking for an uncorrupted leader but resolves that collective actio