After recently catching The Lemon Twigs at the ICA as part of 4AD’s showcase series, it was hard to tell whether the novelty of the band’s age and persona outweighed the substance in the music. After all, they are not the first, nor will they be the last band to fall prey to such frivolities – remember The Strypes?

The D’Addario brothers are at the youthful ages of 17 and 19. Odd mullet hair-dos, eccentric 70s style shirts and bell-bottom jeans that have a parachute flare to them are their attire of choice. Along with their kooky personas, they have quite the marketable image away from the music. Alas, all the hyperbole surrounding the duo has led for their album, Do Hollywood, to be something with a lorry-load of expectation. After releasing just the sole double-A side debut single, not much is known of the group’s recorded material so the jury sits waiting.

The album largely seems to be one that is riddled with inconsistencies, seemingly being more rushed hype than well crafted songs at times. Opener ‘I Prove To You’ is an ode to girl groups of the 50s; The Ronnettes and The Shangri-Las come to mind with its jangle-pop verse and doo-wop chorus. It sets a high marker for the album though, higher than The Lemon Twigs can really reach from there on in. As a song, it is nothing new to music, but it is very good. ‘Those Days Is Comin Soon’ tries to blend different rhythms and influences to make something interesting, it struggles though because it lacks any melody or particular hook. It charges around with the seeing-red vision of a bull but fails to find the matador on any occasion, instead becoming locked in the wooden fence of what could have been.

‘Haroomata’ does similar. The song is in fragments, the ideas throughout show promise but instead of being separate songs, they are stitched together to form some makeshift piece. Improvised jazz is clumsily tied to robust rock’n’roll which leads for no solid rhythm. You get the sense that ‘Baby, Baby’ is slightly more complete with a soupy groove that introduces the song and resurfaces at times throughout. The jarring interjections of keyboard between the groove make it something hard to get your ears around and properly enjoy. It’s obvious that the group are heavily influenced by their psych-rock predecessors, Foxygen. Various genre aesthetics are poured into a chemical mess in a similar way but the songs don’t really feel complete, there are just loose examples of half-cooked ideas. There’s rarely a point in ‘Haroomata’ or ‘Those Days Is Comin Soon’ that really makes you want to finish listening to it.

‘These Words’ is another example of one of Do Hollywood’s better pieces, however. It carries a little more consistency with the rhythm and Manzarek influenced keys which give the finished product a flavour of something that falls into The Door’s Strange Days era with a booming chorus of “these words”. The middle-eight works much better than elsewhere on the album and the octave change in the final chorus gives the impression that it is a better crafted piece than others on the album. ‘As Long As We’re Together’ is a certain for fans of The Flaming Lips, it shows that at the slower points when The Lemon Twigs find a bit more tenderness between the tempo, they are often better off. ‘Hi+Lo’ takes a similar route and in doing so, feels more fully fledged as a song. The chorus certainly speeds up affairs but it doesn’t feel like it’s racing away, desperately trying to end the piece; it feels intentional.

‘Frank’ is the sound of The Lemon Twigs putting together a film score. It’s dramatic but similarly highlights another disappointment with the album – what is going on with drums, why are they recorded like that? Throughout the album, you can’t help but feel slightly irritated by the irrational volume as to which they stand out in the mix, often dominating the entire sound.

‘A Great Snake’ ends the album and the four-to-the-floor drumming that introduces the song is so refreshing to hear by this point. The synth that runs underneath – admittedly very, very far beneath – is synonymous with Aladdin Insane, it’s purposeful and its retro-tinge gives the album a great sound by the end. The song lacks a chorus but fortunately other musical tangents in the song make it something interesting to listen to; the space-age jam at the very end is a spectacle in itself.

Ultimately though, Do Hollywood is slightly disappointing. It is a half-baked idea of an album, at times being fantastic and at other points, being woefully misguided. You can’t help but feel slightly miffed with the speed as to which this group have been squeezed into our musical consciences; if a little more time was taken to nurture the sound and pull together full songs, it would feel so much more complete. They only surfaced on the UK’s musical map three months ago and with just the one single released so far, they had a lot to prove on an album that unfortunately, couldn’t afford to be messed up.
Tom Churchill

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