Remember the ‘good old days’, when your in-car entertainment was an eight track cartridge player and an AM radio and streaming was just something your nose did when you had a cold? The Lemon Twigs can’t possibly remember this retro version of the metaverse but they gone and recorded the soundtrack for it anyway

Brian and Michael D’Addario, the ex-child-actors from Long Island are back, all flares and mullets. And they’ve really got something to tempt us. Take a little bit Simon and Garfunkel, a dash of Bread, a soupçon of the Everly Brothers, a twist of Beach Boys, and a dollop of the Carpenters and what you get is Everything Harmony, their fifth studio album

It’s not a radical departure from the delightfully rear facing sound of its predecessors. The spirit of ’74 still looms large here, but for the album opener When Winter Comes Around, they look slightly further back to the folkier parts of the late ’60s. The brothers’ harmonies are outstanding on this, one of the gentler songs on the album which is fresh and highly likeable – an encouraging indication of what’s in store

The second track In My Head, is a gem, is a lovely, low-key pop-rock confection packed with ringing guitar lines and sweet, simple harmonies that uncoils beautifully. From here on in, the hits just keep on coming

Corner of My Eye and Any Time of Day are both gorgeous pop songs that manage to stay just the right side of saccharine – a precarious balancing act which the brothers seem to have perfected. Ghost Run Free and What You Were Doing are unapologetic power-pop classics, dripping in melody with just enough grit

There’s more Garfunkel-ish vocal on the piano ballad I Don’t Belong To Me, a song with an interesting tune and structure that wanders around several unexpected places before the album reaches its baroque peak with Every Day is the Worst Day of My Life, the latest of the album’s four singles.  The harmony vocals are spot-on, the acoustic guitars have a lot of presence and the hymn-like coda recalls the warm Californian sunshine of The Mamas and the Papas

Described as one of the album’s ‘moments of desperation and isolation,’ the wistful What Happens to a Heart is a big ballad with a quasi-orchestral backing.  In complete contrast to its bombast is Still It’s Not Enough, dreamy, quiet and intimate.  Or, at least it starts that way before the strings kick in and the song builds to an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable climax. We stay with intimacy for Born to Be Lonely, a song that changes mood and time signature as the confessional verses interface with its brash 3 / 4 passages

The bright, sunny Ghost Run Free is a chunk of vibrant, euphoric pop, and that vibrancy is retained for the album’s bouncy, punchy title track.  But, perhaps, the album’s most thought-provoking moment comes with closing track, New To Me.  Inspired by the brothers’ shared experience of loved ones suffering from the dreaded Alzheimer’s, it’s probably the album’s most intimate track with a pared-back acoustic guitar backing that allows the listener to concentrate on the thoughtful lyrics, delivered with yet more of those characteristic and wonderful harmonies.  It’s a fitting end to a refreshing, enjoyable album

The Twigs choose their reference points with care, and Wilson, Chilton, and Rundgren are cited often and with great gusto and reverence. If you’re looking for any influences from anytime later than 1975, Everything Harmony isn’t for you. It’s never pastiche – just music that harks back 25 years before the writers were born