In a college music class I teach in New York City, the question of whether rhythm or melody is more important comes up every semester. Not surprisingly, given the age of the average college student, rhythm is always the clear winner. The influence of hip-hop has almost made the question moot.
But here and there in the world of new music, musicians are unconvinced that rhythm has totally vanquished melody. These same true believers are also certain that the greatest melodies are still out there waiting to be written. Enter the Lemon Twigs.
Raised on Long Island, the two brothers at the center of this quartet, Brian and Michael D'Addario, both now in their late 20s and musically wise beyond their years, are the sons of folk-rock musician Ronnie D'Addario. The pair started their careers in show business as child actors. Brian was in the cast of a 2006 revival of Les Misérables and a Broadway production of The Little Mermaid; he has done a guest spot on TV's Law & Order. His brother Michael has been in the 2012 horror film Sinister, a Broadway production of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, and the exceptional 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams, in which he played Charles Adams.
While they had success as actors, the melodies they heard growing up with their father's record collection kept calling them to make music. Both became accomplished multi-instrumentalists and songwriters. In bands since high school in Hicksville, New York, the brothers write songs that fit squarely in the rarefied genre of power pop, with psychedelic flourishes and more than a little glam-rock glitter and flash dashed in for flavor. Hit single melodies are notoriously hard to write, so they make it easy on themselves by keeping their tunes short. Their tempos are often snappy and energetic; the perils of romance are their most frequent lyrical subject. Visually, the brothers favor Beatles haircuts, tight trousers, and at times horizontally striped shirts like the ones Murray Wilson once forced the Beach Boys to wear. They have been on the road for most of the past two years, during which time they've become a taut, exuberant live attraction.
The band's first commercial recording was a limited-edition cassette release, What We Know from 2015. The duo's debut album Do Hollywood, produced by Jonathan Rado of the power-pop band Foxygen, was released in 2016 on 4AD Records. The band, which has since added Danny Ayala on bass and keyboards and Reza Matin on drums, had its breakthrough in 2024 with the release of A Dream Is All We Know on Brooklyn indie label Captured Tracks.
An effervescent, inviting collection of irresistible melodies, the album spawned highlights like the soaring album opener, "My Golden Years," and the deliberately Beatlesque "Peppermint Roses."
The follow-up, Look for Your Mind!, was released in May 2026. While not as catchy as its much-praised predecessor, it is another solid collection of guitar-pop originals that even contains a rave-up, "Bring You Down," that should bring a smile to the face of garage-band fans everywhere.
Like their most obvious models, Lennon and McCartney (along with Brian Wilson), both brothers write songs by themselves. According to Brian D'Addario, who was kind enough to take time off to wander around outside the studio they've established in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and do a midday Zoom with me, the brothers' songwriting happens both together and apart.
"We always write separate songs, but then we develop them together quite a lot. As soon as they are written, we play them for each other. There are always ideas that sprout up, especially harmony ideas. "It's often a long process between the time they are written and the time they are recorded. That happens a lot. But I've always been encouraged by Leonard Cohen's process and how he would take years to finish songs. If I feel it's a song where the emphasis is on the words, then I'll give myself some time to develop that."
Given that their music is so shot through with influences—the list also includes Big Star, the Raspberries, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, and a slew of British Invasion bands beginning with The Who—it's no surprise that both have extensive record collections.
"Michael's really adventurous when it comes to finding new music," Brian tells me. "He and Reza [Matin], who plays drums in the band and a bunch on this record, they're always finding real cool songs that are more underground. I tend to listen to the same records for years.
"Lately, some of my favorite albums are Sagittarius, Present Tense; that's a huge influence. Songs of Leonard Cohen: I go back to that every couple of years. Daughters of Albion, a Leon Russell [arranged and produced] record, that's a great one. Discover America, Van Dyke Parks: That's a huge influence on me. And The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas by Nick Garrie."
Perfectionists who've become expert at layering and overdubbing, particularly vocal parts, the D'Addarios have also become studio rats, spending many hours in their space in Brooklyn. They are also dedicated fans of analog, forgoing DAWs (digital audio workstations), analog-to-digital converters, and digital signal processors to record all their albums to tape.
"When we press vinyl, there is no digital conversion at any point in the chain," Brian proudly assures me. "The albums are recorded on 2" tape, and all mixes are bounced down to ¼" tape. From this ¼" tape, the mastering engineer cuts the lacquer directly, so the entire process remains fully analog."
Family bands often dissolve in a haze of personality conflicts. Working and touring with siblings ain't easy.
"Actually, it depends on the day," Brian concludes with a knowing, slightly weary grin when asked about the state of brotherly harmony. "At the moment, today, I'd say it's a little bit challenging."
