BUSTED - "Crashed The Wedding" (Patreon)

(#964, 22nd November 2003)

“You Said No” was an uneven mix of Busted’s charms and their weaknesses; “Crashed The Wedding” is all upside. All of Busted’s singles so far have played like episodes in the band’s imaginary TV show - a vaguely naughty comedy story; a goofy sci-fi pastiche; a high school melodrama. “Crashed The Wedding” is more like the climax of the group’s first movie, the riotous denouement of a pop-punk rom-com. Though the ‘punk’ side is getting even more vestigial - this is scruffbag power-pop, and all the better for it.

It’s melodrama with a sense of fun, and while it doesn’t have many jokes it’s a conceptual cousin to their funniest and best song, “Year 3000”: take a situation (The Future, A Wedding), add Busted, let hijinks ensue. In terms of a sense of potential, “Crashed” was probably peak Busted for me - of course, it helped that it came out just in time to be played at my wedding, complete with ill-advised Busted jump. But you might have to go back as far as Madness to find a British group with such apparent commitment to telling larger-than-life stories and tall tales through pop. “Crashed The Wedding” is a romp; a breakneck dash full of hooks and harmonies and the pinch-yourself delight of decisive action: “I said I’d do it and I did”. In pop or out of it, there are few happier feelings.

8 out of 10