THE LEMON TWIGS — SONGS FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC

In 2018 The Lemon Twigs showed their allegiance to the classic rock era by producing what was in effect a rock opera, Go To School.

With Songs For The General Public they go even further, the versatile Long Islanders doing for the 1970s what San Francisco’s Foxygen (who produced the Twigs first album) have done for 1960s psychedelic rock.

And they have produced a tribute dazzling in its panache.

Album opener Hell On Wheels is an irresistible slice of glam rock, sweeping aside any comparisons to their more parodic brethren The Darkness.

Leather Together is the right level of sleaze and suggestiveness for a listener to picture Alice Cooper belting it out in full regalia.

Somebody Loving You is the first track to do something interesting and different with the glam formula, keeping the rich vocal harmonies but moving through some strange and evocative chord sequences.

Listeners have to wait for the eighth track, Only A Fool, to sample an even more daring, if not outright off the wall, take on the formula, but it’s well worth it.

Epic ballad Hog shows Michael D’addario stretching his vocal cords, but not satisfied with taking down the cockrock cliches, the self-styled Brothers Glam decide to take on that other 1970s staple, the Moog synthesiser, on the twisted nursery rhyme Why

Do Lovers Own Each Other?

Notwithstanding the pastiche-driven brief, there are sonic surprises with every track, right up until the final glorious squeals of feedback.

9/10, Rachel Farrow