Sleaford Mods
The Demise of Planet X
ROUGH TRADE
Nottingham’s Sleaford Mods may not have changed much since their 2013 debut Austerity Dogs, and most likely will never bother to. Bluntly spoken in an East Midlands accent with lyrics focused on a working-class ethos which would put the Peaky Blinders to shame, the Mods rage-rave on with their aggressive brand of electronic post-punk that’s always refreshing to witness after 13 years of minimalistic-animalistic brusque-tronica. They’ve even put the “rough” back into the Rough Trade label, the UK’s earliest home to all-things pugnacious and scratchy.
To rapping-coughing lyricist Jason Williamson and house-crushing instrumentalist Andrew Fearn, the apocalyptic world of their eighth album, The Demise of Planet X, is blue and there’s nothing they can—or will—do to save it from itself. They’ll make up insults throughout the boiling “Megaton,” then turn ska into something less than joyous on “Kill List.” Williamson will peer down his nose when reminiscing about his own lost childhood on “Gina Was,” drop scabby bon mots and frantic F-bombs within the trash-cinematic soundscape of “The Good Life,” and laugh accusatively at spendthrifts and sentimentalists on “The Unwrap.”
Fearn may add some stern string sounds to his bold, bleak instrumentation on “Double Diamond,” and the pair even welcomes guests (not a usual S-Mods move, to be sure) such as Liam Bailey on the MAGA-hating “Flood the Zone,” Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins on the spidery “No Touch,” and folkie vocalist Aldous Harding within the burnt-sugar walls of “Elitest G.O.A.T” (big points for having Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones hack up a lung during “The Good Life,” as well). Sleaford Mods continue to make the most unwelcoming music of their career within the vaporous, heinous atmosphere of Planet X—that is, until their next album.
