The Lodger
Life Is Sweet
(Slumberland)
Life must be sweet for The Lodger singer/songwriter Ben Siddal. How else could he consistently write songs that are so irresistibly cheerful? For their sophomore release, The Lodger attempt to deepen their sound, with a greater inclusion of instrumentation and down-tempo tracks. Regardless of their efforts, their sound still relies heavily on the strength of Siddal’s pleasing voice and jingle-jangle guitars, leaving Life Is Sweet sounding similar to their last album, Grown-ups. Not that this is a bad thing. Most likely, though, this album’s legacy will be the contribution of a few songs to an incredible greatest hits disc.
–Caley MacLennan
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2008.