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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
The D’Addarios prove themselves to be more than capable of pulling off the preposterous, and the 50-something minutes of ‘Go To School’ pass by in a rush of precision-tooled harmony vocals, rock’n’roll mini-epics à la Townshend, woodwinds, strings, banjos and chimes.
90
Go to School is an artistic statement on a grand scale, and it cements their reputation as world-class songwriters. It’s a once-in-a-generation epic that, unfortunately, The Lemon Twigs will never be able to do again, owing to the purity of concept and execution here.
84
Ridiculous in concept, somehow ‘Go To School’ is endearing throughout, poignant, impassioned, and perhaps would’ve been a smash if the D’Addario Brothers were born a few decades earlier.
83
It’s the kind of complicated release that rewards repeated listens, as the story of a disaffected chimp translates into songs about the loneliness and longing for acceptance that linger even as high school fades away.
80
‘Go To School’ is a highly ambitious album and some may be wary of the concept, however, if you unpack it, there’s a touching tale within that can resonate with all.
80
The album is dazzling in its ambition, not least because the Lemon Twigs are in earnest.
80
The Lemon Twigs have taken a lot of what made the first part of the 1970's vibrant and colorful and fascinating and applied those things to a contemporary work. The results are bizarre and at times a little confusing, but it's a unique piece of work, beautifully written, with a jewelers eye for detail.
80
Go To School is musically outstanding; sincere and ridiculously entertaining, providing everything that modern-day rock has to offer.
80
Overall, Go To School is a blast, a joyous, ridiculous journey that treads a perfect line between silly, funny and heart-breaking.
75
True fans will undoubtedly be in love with this latest record, as the brothers only ramp up their core personalities. It’s how this outlandish spirit is used however that can leave the album feeling like it’s going in too many directions at once.
75
Magnificent, opulent, bizarre, and wholesome, Go To School is unlikely to be remembered as a hit-filled album but as an important stepping stone in the rock'n'roll rite of passage instead.
70
A 15-track, hour-long opus that is never dialled down any lower than mildly hysterical, it will trigger a fight or flight reflex in every listener.
70
Listen to Go to School on a surface level, and you’ll get the tale of an adolescent chimp, raised by humans, who gets his dreams crushed and his heart broken before returning to nature in a symbolic blaze of freedom and destruction. Give the album your full attention, however, and you’ll hear two young musicians settling into their gifts as they challenge the rapidly expanding worldview they share.
70
Leaving no ridiculous tangent or exaggerated flourish unexplored, the result is a larger-than-life spectacle grown from strange but excellent songwriting.
70
Go to School is a testament to unbridled creative freedom—a concept album such as this one could easily take a turn for the bizarre, yet Brian and Michael are able to keep it witty and lighthearted.
60
It’s charming and full of heart, but you’ll be grimacing all the way through it.
60
In some ways Go to School is an authentically, lovingly reproduced if rather pastiche period piece, but it’s hard not to admire the ambition and showmanship, or the breadth of influences – from glam to music hall to Stephen Sondheim to Oklahoma!
50
For all their eccentricities, The Lemon Twigs are master magpies, so here it’s all obnoxious stage school vocals of the lead singing like a spider and over emoting. It’s bonkers song structures and big crescendos. But it’s all about a chimpanzee.
Too damn long for its own good!!
P.s Im so glad they put out the track "Queen of my school" such a bop for me.
P.s Im so glad they put out the track "Queen of my school" such a bop for me.
Track List
- Never in My Arms, Always in My Heart
- The Student Becomes the Teacher
- Rock Dreams
- The Lesson
- Small Victories
- Wonderin' Ways
- The Bully
- Lonely
- Queen of My School
- Never Know
- Born Wrong / Heart Song
- The Fire
- Home of a Heart (The Woods)
- This is My Tree
- If You Give Enough
- Go to School
In Library (22)
Added on: July 10, 2018
