Description:	LP on Slumberland
	Format:	LP (vinyl)
	Genre(s):	Indie Pop
	Label:	Slumberland
	Price:	£11.29
	Availability:	Dispatched within 2-5 days (on average).

4
...according to our Brian on 15 May 2008.

There was a day when I had hair & a love for jangly, sad songs written by shy, lovelorn men from the North. Well, The Wedding Present are no more unless you count The Divorce Cinerama and all that's left of that ilk round these parts is The Lodger, a band I can't quite get my my fat face around. 'Life is Sweet' has lots of requisite things to make a good sophomore album but just sounds a little limp to me. Fey vocals over a kinda pastiche of post Sarah/B&S jangle pop, lovingly produced and all that but the songs leave no impact on my heart. If you dig the current scene and aren't a bitter, jaded old sod like me then these flighty, twee tunes will no doubt touch you. They sure know how to write a good, tight number and everything's in place.....but there's summat important missing from this Leeds 3 piece. The urgency of the 1st couple of singles crops up in 'The Conversation' but maybe my time loving this style of indie pop is past. Much preferred the Wave Pictures album. This is more akin to The Boyfriends and those meek and mild alternative strummers. For fans of Milky Wimpshake possibly?

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What their label says...

Starting with a string of four singles and culminating in their brilliant debut album,Grown-Ups—which drew comparisons to heavyweights like TheSmiths and The Wedding Present—the band has gone from strengthto strength, developing a polished, literate sound that shows a keen interestin critical pop touchstones like The Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera,and Orange Juice but is still planted firmly in today.As great as Grown-Ups is, Life Is Sweet, The Lodger’s brand new full-length, ups the ante even further. More textural and varied than its predecessor, Life Is Sweet is still filled with gorgeous melodies and catchy tunes, but is also deeper and more thoughtful, full of emotional peaks and valleys. Rather than just chip in with an album of“more of the same,the band has paid extra attention to the arrangements,with 12-string and acoustic guitars, lap steel, and violin adding crucial detail and depth to the tunes.And what about the songs? These are easily the strongest batch o fLodger tunes yet. Opener “My Finest Houris an upbeat charmer that reminds one of The Pale Fountains, setting a wistful tone for the rest of the album. First single “The Good Old Daysis pure Soundof Young Scotland energy; with its scratchy riff, driving drums, singalongchorus, and bouncing bass, it’s bound to fill dancefloors for years to come. “Honey is a beautiful country-tinged lament, and “A Year Since Last Summeris pure guitar-pop pleasure, a two-minute tributeto the genius of The Housemartins.