| Everything Harmony | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | the Lemon Twigs |
| Cover: | The Lemon Twigs - Everything Harmony.png |
| Recorded: | January–October 2021 |
| Studio: |
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| Genre: | Power pop, Baroque pop, jangle pop, soft rock |
| Length: | 48:00 |
| Label: | Captured Tracks |
| Producer: | The Lemon Twigs |
| Prev Title: | Songs for the General Public |
| Prev Year: | 2020 |
| Next Title: | A Dream Is All We Know |
| Next Year: | 2024 |
Everything Harmony is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Lemon Twigs, released on May 5, 2023, through Captured Tracks. It was self-produced by the band and received positive reviews from music critics. Starting in January, the album was preceded by the singles "Corner of My Eye", "Any Time of Day", "In My Head", and "Every Day is the Worst Day of My Life".
According to band member Michael D'Addario, the Lemon Twigs constructed Everything Harmony around several ballads that his brother Brian wrote.[1] In another interview, Michael said, "Brian had composed these haunting melodies, and it felt appropriate to write lyrics that were delicate and revealing."[2] Among the artists the band cited for musical inspiration on Everything Harmony were the Beach Boys, Arthur Russell, Simon and Garfunkel, Curtis Mayfield, and the Left Banke;[3] [4] reviewers also noted influence from the Bee Gees, the Byrds, James Taylor, and Teenage Fanclub.
Everything Harmonys early sessions took place in Manhattan's Music Building, which proved unsuitable for recording the album's acoustic ballads. The brothers then relocated to Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco to finish recording the album.
Everything Harmony received a score of 87 out of 100 based on 12 critics' reviews on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". Connor Shelton of The Line of Best Fit stated that the duo "push[ed] themselves toward intriguing new paths" on the album, and while the "first third of the LP shows a band more focused than ever, the lack of playfulness proves a detriment going into the middle chunk" of the album. PopMatters wrote that "their new batch of songs is so derivative of the early to mid-1970s that on first listen to it, it can be hard to hear past the influences", but that the band "echo, and, at times, even improve on those influences with such convincing skill and ebullient spirit that they demand we take them more seriously". Erica Campbell of NME described Everything Harmony as "a melodic and imaginative romp" on which they make "a sound of their own". Campbell added: "when you consider that the album was recorded, produced and engineered solely by the D'Addario brothers, it adds even more weight to the fact that they could create songs that harken back to classics without sounding too derivative".
Reviewing the album for Under the Radar, Ian Rushbury found it to be "not a radical departure from their delightfully rear facing sound" and the duo "have a simpler approach [as] the music they like is reflected in the songs they write, it just happens to be from an era which the cool kids haven't found yet". Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian opined that the duo "have never mined the past more effectively than on this fourth album", writing that their "biggest touchstone is the beautifully harmonised existential dread of the Beach Boys post-Pet Sounds flop era: rarely has stark despair (one song is called Every Day Is the Worst Day of My Life) sounded so lovely". Fred Thomas of AllMusic felt that the album has the duo "changing directions yet again, turning the volume down and exploring a more sentimental side of their '70s-informed songwriting style", with its "especially gentle songs" like "Any Time of Day" demonstrating "the band's progression the most".
Anthony Fantano rated Everything Harmony as his 10th-favorite album of 2023.[5]
The album appeared at number 78 on the midweek UK Albums Chart dated May 8, 2023.[6]
Credits adapted from Everything Harmony album liner notes.[7]
The Lemon Twigs
Additional musicians
The Friction Quartet
Production
Artwork