Sandra’s Wedding: Arturus Rex

Often, the role of someone who chooses to write about music is to move outside the realm of their regular listening habits. It’s a healthy inclination, keeping the cynicism at bay as one’s own trends become more set as they grow older. It’s this attempt of open-mindedness that can ultimately lead to new places.

One thing to consider (or in this case, not) are PR spiels. By and large, these musings prove so inaccurate that they are akin to fake news. If you’re lucky, 10 per cent of what you read rings true –  many artists across the world, throwing endless amounts of money to some snake oil PR to make their music sound enticing. The truth is, only one thing matters: whether the songs are good or not.

Which is where a band like Sandra’s Wedding comes in. While perhaps inspired by the idea of Britpop, the movement itself is an utter disservice to this band. A genre largely frozen in time, one only has to turn their attention to the grift that is the current Oasis reunion: something that is nothing short of monumental cash grab, epitomising everything that’s wrong with the ‘industry’ and music at large.

There have been other purveyors, of course. As their names suggests, Blur is just that (in fairness, at least they’ve written new material.) Manic Street Preachers, near the top of the tree, but if their last two albums are anything to go by, then it’s diminishing returns at its best. The only shining beacons from this period, Suede and Pulp, showing the rest how to reinvent themselves and maintain artistic relevance. And speaking of, Sandra’s Wedding possess their own. No matter your poison, one cannot deny good songwriting. The walls come down and landscapes become borderless.

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Led by Joseph Hodgson, the Goole-based three-piece are a band whose modest street level persona is something that deeply resonates with the devoted few. The stories dotted throughout their sixth long-player, Arturus Rex, not only ones that ring true, but the boon for Sandra’s Wedding is they actually mean them. Beyond the bullshit PRs and social media metrics, it’s quite clear this band aren’t in ‘the game’. It’s strictly all about the music. Like kindred spirits, Sea Power, this is how cult bands are born, and Sandra’s Wedding have carved out their own part of the world, and in doing so, strengthen the cultural fabric. 

Many will claim that Hodgson’s songs have an air of Michael Head and Paul Heaton about them, and while perhaps occupying the same orbit, there’s still something different about Sandra’s Wedding. Even with the smattering of strings and big-hearted melodies, it’s music that isn’t supposed to be bombastic. It’s small town world-changing, radiating with homespun warmth.

Arturus Rex begins with Sunrise – a song of lush, jangly acoustics backed by strings that are like new light flooding into the room. It’s Sandra’s Wedding’s way of saying ‘welcome into the small patch that is our world, everyone’s invited’.

Shuck the Pearl is to Robert Forster what Blinking of An Eye is to Grant McLennan. Simplicity in song, with stories filled with richness and depth. On the former, Hodgson sings, “As we shuck the pearls from the oyster that is your world” – one of the many fine examples of Hodgson’s use of metaphors, all of which turn on a dime.

Then there’s the orchestral pop of GME. Moving beyond the modest aesthetics once brought to us by Sarah Records, with large-hearted strings and chiming guitars, Sandra’s Wedding unveil salt of the earth songcraft where market traders, blushing brides and clear blue skies form a backdrop to a story we can all relate to.

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Elsewhere, the electric folk of Mother’s Love and Blood from a Stone are songs seemingly from the book of Mark Eitzel. The former, a song where the protagonist is choked up by the past (“Home is where the heart / Love is all you need / Strong and lion hearted / The stuff that means the world all comes from free”); the latter, radio-friendly folk rock done right, and backed by shimmering strings and keys, Hodgson spins more lyrical gold (“The ice is melting and the world starts to flow / Drinking blood from a stone.”

Finishing with Lay It On Me, it’s the staple closer packed with real time drama. Darkness, storms and being lost at sea… things that most within the broad church of the working-class feel more and more in this new world where life is seemingly becoming so much harder.

Perhaps Hodgson frames it best on Sail Away. “It’s the hope that kills / From these windowsills,” he sings, and while it may seem fanciful, that’s a writer’s licence. To momentarily teleport the listener to a different place in hope that it’s better than the one they were in. And on Arturus Rex, Sandra’s Wedding do just that through songs that mean something.

Arturus Rex is out now via Subjangle. Purchase from Bandcamp.