If psychedelic rock served with a heaping side dish of power pop makes your heart flutter, then the Lemon Clocks are a band you’re bound to adore.
Comprised of Jeremy Morris, Steffan Johansson and Todd Borsch — all of whom sing, play a variety of instruments and write the songs — the Lemon Clocks juggle these genres with so much instinct and efficiency that their latest album that Time to Fly could seriously masquerade as a long forgotten relic from the days when gas was affordable, the Beatles were still together, bell-bottoms were in vogue, and cars were as big as boats.
Aping the iconic lick of “So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star” by the Byrds, then twisting, turning and tweaking the rest of the song into something new and noteworthy, “The Beginning of the End” opens Time to Fly with a jangly and jittery jolt. Later, “The End of the Beginning” nails kaleidoscopic bliss to a Pretty Things pulse before concluding to a run of freaky electronic beeps.
In between “The Beginning of the End” and “The End of the Beginning,” we’re gifted with one absorbing Lemon Clocks song after another. Pierced with positive messages, the entries are rimmed with swirling keyboards, jack-hammer drumming, soaring synthesizers, and guitars that ring and rattle with life. Radiant vocals, traveling in accord with divine harmonies and monster-sized melodies further coat The Lemon Clocks’ Time to Fly, set for release today (October 27, 2015) via JAM Records.
From the utterly poptastic “And I Follow” to the mesmerizing magnetism of “Finally Found Our Home” to the fetching fascination of “Electric Tomatoes” to the Led Zeppelin-like intensity of the title track, “Time To Fly” is so colorful that every single second counts. Each cut on the album accomplishes the triumphant task of firing the imagination and soothing the soul.
A trippy timbre, recalling a paisley-powdered John Lennon, pours forth on the gorgeously bleary-eyed “Underwater Dream,” where the repetitiously catchy “Let the Sunshine In,” with its chanting hippy-gumbo chorus, will no doubt lure the audience into forming a circle, engage in a group hug and hold hands. Last but definitely not least is “Groovy Movie,” which freely cops the pinched hook of the Who’s “Can’t Explain” prior to morphing into a string of sonic neon lighting.
The Lemon Clocks have learned well from the masters, and in doing so have created their own enterprising environment of super-cool psychedelic pop-rock sounds. So, for those of you eager to alter your reality, switch on Time to Fly, kick back and prepare to enter the fifth dimension of cobwebs and strange, where you’ll hop on board a magical mystery tour in search of the lost chord, hear the grass grow and have your minds blown to smithereens by a band that’s honestly as good as the fine folks they’ve been inspired by.
- Why Aerosmith Finally Broke Through With ‘Get Your Wings’ - March 5, 2024
- How ‘The Birds, the Bees and the Monkees’ Blew Away Their Pre-Fab Image - April 10, 2023
- Steve Howe Made a Colorful, Quite Surprising Debut With Tomorrow - February 20, 2023
