Brian D’Addario’s country baroque album, Till the Morning, stunned fans with its political messages, religious undertones, and more importantly, somber tenor. A detour from his work in The Lemon Twigs, Brian D’Addario stepped away from the expected musically exhilarating 60’s spunk, and instead traded it in for slow-moving, 1920’s bygone inspired tunes. When comparing it to The Lemon Twigs’ awe-inspiring albums, Do Hollywood, Go To School, Songs for the General Public, Everything Harmony, and A Dream Is All We Know, I believe that Till the Morning is great, but nevertheless falls short of achieving the same level of prowess.
The album begins with the self-titled track, “Till the Morning,” which takes inspiration from artists like Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, and of course, the Beach Boys, and beautifully incorporates signature instrumentals — such as slowed down harpsichord melodies, nylon-strung guitar riffs, and 8-track style recording. With lyrics like “the law of God and man is in a state of disrepair” and “but are we left crippled in our mourning” (a nod to the continued “morning” references), there are several juxtapositions between the joyful tunes and almost sorrowful words. This however is not to say that the contrast spoils the song; in fact, in combination with Brian D’Addario’s dazzling falsetto and the striking, yet subtle, sonic texture, this is one of the better songs on the album.
Alternating between his bubbly sounding repertoire and slow, lyrically focused ballads, the album switches between two styles of songwriting. At some points, it felt as though the instruments were handed on a silver platter, acting as the glue that held the musical lyricism together; however, as evident in songs such as “Song of Everyone,” “One Day I’m Coming Home,” “Only To Ease My Mind,” and “What You Are Is Beautiful,” there were several instances throughout the album where Brian’s signature instrumentals took backstage precedence over his heavy, poetic-like words. While not played back-to-back, these songs broke the flow of Brian’s forte — especially with “Song of Everyone” and “What You Are Is Beautiful”, which were in collaboration with LA poet and Beach Boys’ writer Stephen Kalinich — making the album much like a pendulum swinging from side to side. In my opinion, although the songs are individually magnificent, the combination of these two tempo styles made Till the Morning difficult to follow.
However, with all of this, there are two songs which have yet to be mentioned: “Flash in the Pan” and “Useless Tears.” When hearing that one of the aforementioned Lemon Twig members were releasing a solo album, I was ecstatic, eagerly waiting for songs, which I imagined, would complement the work of the two brothers. These two songs give Till the Morning potential to be other-worldly. If you’ve ever seen Ringo Starr bob his mop of hair to the beat of Beatles classics, this is what “Flash in the Pan” and “Useless Tears” makes me want to do: enthusiastically rock my head to the song’s irresistible tunes. Between the emotionally charged chorus and in-your-face string quartet, it’s impossible not to enjoy.
In sum, while I was not the biggest fan of Till the Morning’s eclectic arrangement of songs, its stand-out instrumentals and production quality make the album ethereal. On Spotify, the songs averaged 35,679 listens, which is definitely nothing to scoff at; however, I think that this is but a fraction of what Brian D’Addario deserves. This album, while not my favorite, is great nonetheless and a perfect starting point for future solo projects by The Lemon Twigs.
Album Rating: 7.0/10
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