Short Reviews [The Lemon Clocks - 2015 - "Time To Fly"]

The Lemon Clocks were formed by multi-instrumentalists and singers Jeremy Morris, Steffan Johansson and Todd Borsch, with this 2015 album being their second release. While some think of Jeremy for his work in the prog field, and others for his Christian albums, he is also adept in the world of power pop and psychedelia and with his like-minded compadres they have taken The Byrds as a starting point, thrown in plenty of The Hollies and more from the beat and psych scene to create something which really does sound as if it was released in the late Sixties as opposed to recently (they are very active, and have released another four albums since this one, even though the guys are on different sides of the Atlantic). This is not an album which is attempting to copy what has been done previously, but instead is taking influences from many different bands and then put them together to create music, which is vibrant, poppy, jangly and just plain fun with wonderful harmony vocals as all those involved sing together. The majority of the 15 songs are around three minutes in length, but the title cut, and one other, allows the band to develop further as they get to six, but somewhat surprising is the closing number which is fifteen. True, some of the best psychedelic bands around (think early Pink Floyd) did massively extend what they were doing with some numbers, but this is dramatically different to anything else on the album. We get a nice gentle pop number, with then drifts into something which has been influenced by “Interstellar Overdrive”, returning then to the same themes as previously, before ending with a lengthy keyboard section which is more electronic prog than anything else. Whatever project Jeremy is involved with, and he has released well in excess of 60 albums by now, is always enjoyable, no matter the genre, and here is yet another fine example. If you enjoy Sixties pop with psychedelic influences, then look no further than The Lemon Clocks.