The Lemon Twigs

Go To School 4ad

Madcap 70s revivalists deliver monkey musical.

Vernon God Little meets the

Planet Of The Apes reboots as Long Island’s 70s schmaltz-rock revivalists The Lemon Twigs (think Wings, 10cc, Elton John, Nilsson, Supertramp, Ziggy) skip the traditional four consolidation albums and leap straight from an acclaimed debut (2016’s Do Hollywood) to a full-blown concept album musical.

A metaphor for such youthquaking concerns as climate change, mass killings and feeling ‘born wrong’, a monkey called Shane is adopted by an uncaring family, alienated at school, dumped by the prom queen and ultimately burns the entire place to the ground.

Dark stuff, given a Rocky Horror makeover by its surrealist simian conceit and a wad of corny/cool Broadway mainstays: the Disney strings swathing The Lesson; the Randy Newman ragtime chorus of Small Victories; the brutality of The Bully set slyly within a bossanova frippery; The Fire itself delivered like a Hair folk epic. Proper Broadway bellowers like Born Wrong/Heart Song give the record hints of We Will AOR You, but plentiful showstopping melodies and an authentic dedication to their influences – Todd Rundgren even plays Shane’s dad – will see Go To School run and run.