Cheer-Accident is a band overflowing with chops and ideas, but not always the type of focus or good taste needed to put them to best use. Like most of their other work, Introducing Lemon has moments that are brilliant and others that are aimless and annoying. The centerpiece here is the 20-plus-minute opener, "The Autumn Wind Is a Pirate," a long instrumental voyage that alternates between
Zappa-like prog acrobatics, a mellow middle section with melodica and acoustic slide guitar, and, out of nowhere, a tight funky part at the end with a gorgeous, trombone-heavy horn arrangement. However, the next song, "Camp o' Physique," is rendered unlistenable by overbearingly jokey vocals, as is the fourth song, "Track 29." On the plus side, "Smile" is a flawless, relaxed pop song that is easily the album's highlight, not just because it's catchy and lyrically moving, but because it has a directness and a sense of tasteful restraint that's often missing elsewhere here. "Find" hits on some of the same jazzy pop cylinders amid its lengthier instrumental passages, which include a long, looping "fade-out" before the song surprisingly picks up again at about the 15-minute mark. Ultimately, of this disc's 70-plus minutes, only about half of it is genuinely entertaining, the rest coming off as either meandering or else downright annoying.
Cheer-Accident have a great album in them; they just need to job a better job of editing their ideas. ~ William York