“Too Young to Be Old” sits smack center in the intersection of dreamy doo-wop, mod-leaning moptops, and Mathis-Monroe mainstays; not so much a departure but a refinement of the best of their catalog.
I was at a café-resto post-Sunday Mass, and despite the high-spirited hubbub, I decided to play the .wav Clem Castro sent me in mid-chat. It was, I’m guessing, a working master of Orange & Lemons’ new single, “Too Young to Be Old.” I held up the rear speaker of my phone to my ear – not the most snobby-audiophile thing you could do, I know – but the irony wasn’t lost on me:
This was lazy-weekend, sinigang-lunch, ravenous-cousins-visiting boomer fare, and – I don’t know if this is even possible – it felt familiar, comforting, and very, very cool. I mean, it’s Orange & freakin’ Lemons, and ‘60s revivalism is an oft-used piece in their metaphorical armory, rarely staying unsheathed. But unlike mall-pro players or retro-bar habitues, they do it with their collective voices intact.
“Too Young to Be Old” sits smack center in the intersection of dreamy doo-wop, mod-leaning moptops, and Mathis-Monroe mainstays. The band doesn’t tiptoe around this, with Castro saying, “There’s still that […] sensibility we naturally gravitate toward, but it’s more refined now: less about imitation, more about interpretation.”
And it’s true.
Listening to their neo-retro take on things, one senses not so much a kid donning his dad’s oversized suit, but one who’s cut holes in the elbows, sewn slogan patches onto the sleeves, and paired the whole ensemble with Chucks. In other words, what O&L does goes way beyond mere cosplay. They’re utterly uninterested in dragging out musical corpses; instead, they drag it up – as in RuPaul the eff out of it, in a manner of speaking – O&L the thing till kingdom come, and without trying too hard.
The band debuted the song live while also previewing the master to a modest-but-adoring Teatrino crowd last April 16 – informally a send-off for their European tour this May – simultaneously unveiling what is the band’s first release on Dolby ATMOS. “It opened up a wider, more immersive sound field while still keeping the intimacy intact,” Castro says of the technology.
In the context of a road-tested set peppered with crowd pleasers, critical favorites, and occasional deep cuts, “Too Young to Be Old” sounded like a refreshing routine breaker – middle-of-the-road oldie at heart but top-of-the-class rabble rouser in soul – and it shows what Clem and the guys are made off: the melodic-workhorse reliability of the Brothers del Mundo (JM on bass, Ace on drums), the textural and harmonic brilliance of Jared Nerona on keys, the singular musical irrefutability of Castro.
“At its core, it sits between indie pop and alternative pop, with strong roots in classic pop songwriting. It’s [melody-driven], but with a more introspective tone than typical pop records,” Castro adds, and what he may be being meek about is how the band has reached the level of idiom-agnosticism both in their play and their playing.
And what I mean is this: whatever you pin on them, whatever you make them do – whether it’s lesser-known White Album stuff or run-of-the-mill Moz & Marr; whether it’s “umuwi ka na, baby” singalongs or “La Bulaqueña” pseudo-dance-offs – they have reached a point where their execution is never intrinsically tied to their musical character. Few reach this point, if they’re lucky, and if at all.
It’s also been announced that “Too Young to Be Old” is the kick-off of a projected all-English release called ‘Visions of Amber,’ which the band sees as “a turning point,” clarifying, “[It’s] not a complete departure, but a refinement of everything we’ve been building. It signals a more introspective and deliberate phase for us: less about layering ideas, more about distilling them.”
Missed your O&L fix? Stream “Too Young to Be Old” today and send it to your friends.