Leeds trio the
Lodger sound unapologetically influenced by several generations of their indie countrymen: flashes of
Orange Juice, the
Wedding Present,
Heavenly, and others permeate their debut album
Grown Ups. But they're more than just C-86-addicted anoraks attempting to replicate the cooler parts of their record collections. Opening track "Many Thanks for Your Honest Opinion," with its scratchily energetic guitar parts and snarky lyrics, clearly owes a bit to the
David Gedge songbook, and the winsome bubblegum melody and lovelorn lyrics of "The Story's Over" are tailor-made for a cover by Amelia Fletcher's next band. But the young trio perform their brand of earnest semi-twee indie pop with such scrappy enthusiasm and emotional directness that accusations of near-plagiarism simply don't wash. Listening to a small, unfussy gem like "Unsatisfied," which sounds like what
Coldplay might have been if stripped of every last bit of
Chris Martin's inherent self-importance, it's clear that the
Lodger's prime mover, singer/songwriter
Ben Siddall, garners comparisons to
Gedge and Fletcher mostly because
Grown Ups suggests that he just might be nearly as good as them. ~ Stewart Mason