Sandra's Wedding - The Hopeful Boy Replacement Service

I love Sandra's Wedding. I've never been sure if the band name does them any favours, but it is about the music and the music is fantastic. The Goole trio's last album, Pleasure Grounds more than deservedly appeared in I Don't Hear A Single's Best Of 2021 End Of Year.  You can read that Review here.

I have a lot in common with the band, coming from a Northern Town that has been devastated since the Thatcher years, built on Rugby League and Brass Bands. Working Glass workers that wouldn't take shit, but now have little work around. We are on opposite coasts, but the song remains the same.

This is great Pop Rock and Joe Hodgson's vocal remains somewhere between Paul Heaton and Glenn Tilbrook, although on this album, the Heaton comparison seems even more pronounced. The songwriting certainly follows that Housemartins beautiful songs about misery direction.

There is a self effacing brilliance that surrounds the band in all that they do. An ironic sense of humour that tells tales of the humdrum life that is the norm, but sung in a chipper sugar sweet manner. You are surrounded by melody and big choruses in crackerjack songs that set your feet tapping.

If anything, The Hopeful Boy Replacement Service is even more laid back than Pleasure Grounds. The songs are just as well performed and arranged, but there are plenty of different roads taken. This Be The Verse is very mid 80s Jangly Dream Pop. Laughing My Head Off stays in that period, but edges more towards Synth Pop.

The Berlin Wall And Other Stories reveals a whole different side to the band. It is meandering and melancholic, epic in scope, moody and magnificent, It is brilliant as it is, but you can also imagine different versions that it would suit. Rocked up or even orchestral Elbow style. It is a thing of great beauty. 

There is still plenty of the altogether now song choruses that Sandra's Wedding are noted for, French Girls and Rum Life being the best examples. From The Book To Stage is outstanding with an apt Brass arrangement that rounds the song off splendidly.

But overall, the feel is more pensive, deeper, perhaps a little more grown up and it works. The mix of the jaunty and the heartfelt works beautifully, this is a masterclass of how fabulous Pop can be. It is easy to write woe is me songs, much harder to offer upbeat sounding feel good material. This may be the best Pop Rock album that you will hear this year.

You can listen to and buy the album here, where you can also buy vinyl editions/ The CD is available on the mighty Subjangle label here.

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