Sandra's Wedding
Sandra's Wedding ~ "Arturus Rex"

britpop / sophisti-pop / jangle pop / indie pop

Every long-standing "quality" band must have moments when they know they've created something so special that they may spend the rest of their career trying to replicate it.

Arturus Rex is such a 'magnum opus moment' for Goole, UK-based trio Sandra's Wedding. With a back catalogue spanning five previous albums, the band have always felt naturally configured to shine among a subdued, jangly indie-pop meets Brit Pop aesthetic that somehow augments the lyrical themes that illustrate their relationship with the small northern town they are from and the minute experiences that it, and its inhabitants dwell within, and while a number of modern acts have a similar self-reflecting/self-deprecating acceptance of their lot, none have ever done it quite as well as this threesome.

Perhaps, just perhaps, this is Sandra's Wedding's gloriously successful attempt to break away from such a musical subtext, as Arturus Rex sees them become decidedly more 'massive and so much more considered and definite as they suddenly infiltrate á whole array of guitar-pop genres with an aplomb that is precipitated by the wonderful use of strings and orchestration that startles as much through its alienation to everything the band has been before, as it does for its radiant pop beauty.

As such, the luscious strings perfectly complement the considered Sunny Intervals, Postal Blue, and Armstrong-style 'polished pop' of Sunrise, Shuck the Pearl, and Blood From the Stone, as the beautifully sweet and controlled vocals of Joe Hodgson are somehow given new Paul Heaton-style life amid a their new world of pop pristine.

Similarly, when the luscious is not quite so extravagant but still omnipotent, a sophisti-pop allure is crumbled into the recipe in Lullahello and Sail Away in a sound that feels reminiscent of the National Honor Society or any number of Michael Head incarnations.

Despite this new sense of opulence, the band still manages to retain a connection to the roots of their back catalogue, with the acoustic guitar dominance of Blinking of an Eye brushing slightly against their previous melancholy, whereas GME and Lay It On Me are totally Sandra's Wedding of yesteryear in the juxtaposition of the most stunning of fragile, incidental, jangled riffs into their aesthetic.

Small town minutiae has never felt quite so essential !