Even apes make love.
An ape’s coming of age musical.
Go To School, the second album released by The Lemon Twigs, not only avoided the sophomore slump, but went as far as to create a bond between the listener and the ape protagonist of the album. Brothers Michael and Brian D’Addario, founding members of The Lemon Twigs, carry us through the ups and downs of Shane, an ape, as he gets adopted by human parents, goes to school, and falls in love. Of course, this can only be expressed as a rock musical, because what’s more dramatic than high school?
While the idea of a monkey with a backpack, traversing through a suburban high school to attain an education and make friends sounds outlandish to me, The Twigs seamlessly make this both a reality and a reminder of my own coming of age. To immediately bring the listener into this world, they start by highlighting a very real struggle that many couples go through, the difficulty of conceiving a child. “Never In My Arms, Always In My Heart” is woven with deadpan humor like this exchange between Shane’s parents:
And he tells her, ‘All I want to do is stand next to you
All I want to do is stand next to you’
Well you need to get on top of me
And do this thing before I'm fifty
And dry as a bone
This is followed by the belting of Michael’s lines: “Oh, if I could only give my breath to you/Watch you crawl around and stand next to you.” Sharply reminded that this is a tragic story of a loving woman wanting so desperately to become a mother, a chorus of voices supports her pleas by emphasizing her words. The only possible course of action after this is for the parents to adopt an ape who they name Shane.
Shane, like many of us, has a disruptive entrance into the human world, but attempts to go about his life like a normal student would. By creating this storyline, The Twigs trick me into relating to an animal of another species facing human struggles. Tracks like “Lonely” and “Born Wrong/Heart Song” are particularly touching as soft piano chords and a quiet but strained “Shane” (Michael) sings of his feelings as an outsider. Attempting to make friends, while they simultaneously make plans in front of him that he isn’t invited to, is a painful story to hear as a survivor of middle school. Remembering what it was like for my face to get red hot from the sinking embarrassment of realizing that your friends aren’t really your friends, it feels all too familiar. Shane’s feelings begin to swell and violins accompanying banjos accompanying horns bring Shane to a point in which he can’t even form words anymore and melodically belts pure emotion.
Even though school has many, many lows, every now and then there’s a high, and nothing is more of a high than getting with your crush, as Shane does in “Queen of My School.” “Queen of My School” is one of my personal favorites from the album because of it’s twangy 60s/70s guitar sound that’s reminiscent of their first, and my favorite album, Go Hollywood. The musical theater of Go To School is not typically in The Lemon Twigs wheelhouse, but they are no strangers to mixing genres ranging from indie pop and funk to techno, folk, and rock. Their song “Queen of My School” grounds long-time listeners like me to their unique sound that is constantly changing, but finds roots in British invasion and folk stars like Leonard Cohen. I can almost hear Michael D’Addario jumping around and doing his signature leg kicks as he playfully plucks an electric guitar and vocalizes every breathless high note to low grunt that comes with the excitement of first love—all while he is supported by his brother Brian D’Addario on backup vocals and drums, who keeps the song driving. And as in most of the album, the horns remain to keep up with a quick, bouncing melody, making at-times awkward notes to illustrate an ape making love. I get so caught up with the excitement of the song that I almost forget what it’s about: “My pussy's, your employer/Because, Shane, I want to scream and shout/Oh, look what she’s done to me.”
This dynamic, rock musical brings me back to the confusing time that was middle and high school, when one feels the rollercoaster of exhilarating acceptance from friends and crushes, to the crushing downfall of being bullied or arguing with one’s parents. Even though not every song is individually memorable, and some tend to blend together, The Lemon Twigs succeed in capturing the feeling of growing up. However, they do this through the lens of an ape, which I can’t help but connect with. Growing up is oftentimes sad and awkward, but also exciting. The Twigs decide to round out the album and its storyline with another prevalent, adolescent emotion: rage. In “The Fire,” Shane finally reaches his breaking point after being dumped by the girl who takes his virginity, being told he is non-human and adopted by his parents, and being bullied by a group of students. The familiar twangy guitar from “Queen of My School” returns in “The Fire,” along with harsh piano chords and layered vocals. Vocals that cut to one voice every so often to tell the story of a fellow student watching Shane get beaten up and consequently lighting his school on fire. A fire that kills one hundred people. This dark scene picks up at the end of the song to be almost fun, while Michael D’Addario sings of emotional and physical pain, and Shane’s feeling that he’s “won.” Despite being a sad story for many reasons, the song is the ultimate expression of teenage rage and another reminder that the D’Addario brothers’ album has transported me into a fantasy world with painful realities.
edited by Samuel Espinal Jr.
album artwork believed to belong to either the publisher of the work or the artist.