Sleaford Mods | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Combining the revolutionary fury of punk and hip-hop with the bleakness of austerity-era Great Britain, Sleaford Mods capture the spirit of their time with blunt eloquence. Andrew Fearns minimalistic, intentionally cheap-sounding loops, guitars, and keyboards provide a fitting backdrop as Jason Williamson rants about politics, injustice, and pop culture with outrage, scathing humor, and, every so often, rough-edged poignancy. The duos first officially released albums, which included 2014s Divide and Exit, quickly won acclaim for their brash sounds and words. Later efforts such as 2017s English Tapas -- which became a Top 20 hit in the U.K. -- and 2019s Eton Alive were more somber, underscoring the reality of Sleaford Mods subject matter. This reality extends to Williamsons roots: While growing up in Grantham, Lincolnshire, he was expelled from secondary school for piercing a friends ear and began working at a factory that made ready-to-eat meals because he had no other qualifications. After a failed attempt at being an actor, he learned to play guitar and moved to London in 1993 at the beginning of the Britpop craze. Two years later, he moved to Nottingham, where he became a session musician with Spiritualized and the electronic duo Bent. He began Sleaford Mods in 2006, spending the first few years of the project working out the bands aggressive, no-nonsense, blue-collar sound in the studio with engineer Simon Parfrement and at occasional gigs, where he would rap over prerecorded beats and samples. After relocating to London for a while, he returned to Nottingham, and in 2009, met Andrew Fearn, a veteran musician who was DJing at the time. The two joined forces in 2010, with Fearn taking on most of the backing tracks, freeing up Williamson to further evolve as a vocalist and lyricist. Their first recorded collaboration was on the CD-R Wank, which appeared in 2012. Their minimalist combination of either lo-fi drum machine beats or live drums mixed with pounding bass guitar and Williamsons ranting wordplay set the tone that would define the bands sound. A prominent festival appearance led to their signing with the abstract punk label Harbinger Sound, which released Sleaford Mods 2013 album, Austerity Dogs, their first proper label release and the first to receive widespread distribution. The album was critically well received, and Sleaford Mods reputation and profile were raised significantly as they toured the U.K. and Europe. Their follow-up album, Divide and Exit, was released in April 2014. That October, the previously digital-only singles collection Chubbed Up, was given a physical release with three bonus tracks. The following month, the duo capped off a triumphant year with the Tiswas EP, which expanded on the Divide and Exit cut with previously unreleased tracks. Along with Prodigy and Leftfield collaborations, Sleaford Mods began work on a new album. Key Markets, which took its name from a grocery store in Williamsons hometown of Grantham, was inspired by "the disorientation of modern existence" and arrived in July 2015. That year also saw the release of Invisible Britain, a documentary that followed the bands U.K. tour prior to the 2015 General Election. In 2016, the duo signed to Rough Trade, which released the T.C.R. EP that October and the full-length English Tapas (named for a menu item Fearn saw at a pub) in March 2017. The album debuted at number 12 on the U.K. Albums Chart. A self-titled EP inspired in part by social media outbursts, paranoia, and depression arrived the following September. Sleaford Mods then formed their own label, Extreme Eating, on which they released the full-length Eton Alive in February 2019. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 16 Title: Sleaford Mods Released: 2007 Tracks: 9 Duration: 37:39 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 R&B Paul (03:58) 2 Teacher Faces Porn Charges (06:31) 3 2 Yrs (02:31) 4 Skull Island (04:19) 5 Graham (05:26) 6 Adele (03:43) 7 Some of These Plants Are Burnt (03:43) 8 Right Back to You (03:58) 9 My Music (03:30) |
 | Album: 2 of 16 Title: The Mekon Released: 2008 Tracks: 10 Duration: 36:44 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Armitage Shanks (04:43) 2 Barmy Army (03:50) 3 Dead Cities (04:05) 4 High Noon (04:05) 5 The Mekon (03:18) 6 Jobseeker (03:20) 7 Stevie (02:06) 8 Trixie (06:15) 9 Peter Peter Peter (02:21) 10 Suede Head (02:41) |
 | Album: 3 of 16 Title: The Originator Released: 2009 Tracks: 16 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Jason Stop Wanking (?) 2 Fuck All Realleh (?) 3 Wack It Up Bruv (?) 4 Chefs Omlette (?) 5 Chop Chop Chop (?) 6 Chaos Down in Soho (live) (?) 7 The Mod That Fell to Earth (?) 8 Chaos Down in Soho (original) (?) 9 The Cherry Tree (?) 10 Shelf Life (?) 11 Jason and the Taliband (?) 12 Des Walker (?) 13 The Double Gone Chapel (?) 14 Blackbeard Was (?) 15 The Lamp (?) 16 The Bride of Rankenstein (?) |
 | Album: 4 of 16 Title: S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Released: 2011 Tracks: 9 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Tramp Stamps and Trendy Bollocks (?) 2 Swarfega (?) 3 Chimney (?) 4 Cheeky Wally (?) 5 Double Diamond (?) 6 Urine Mate Welcome to the Club (?) 7 The Last 3 Digits on the Back of the Card (?) 8 Rollatruc (?) 9 Guitar (?) |
 | Album: 5 of 16 Title: Wank Released: 2012-03-01 Tracks: 9 Duration: 30:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 PPO Kissin Behinds (04:35) 2 Kill It Clean (02:32) 3 £5.60 (03:14) 4 Dont Wanna Disco or 2 (05:00) 5 Showboat (02:33) 6 The Wage Dont Fit (04:23) 7 Police! Stop (02:59) 8 Mysteron (02:27) 9 Shit Streets Runny (03:03) |
 | Album: 6 of 16 Title: Austerity Dogs Released: 2013-03-01 Tracks: 13 Duration: 44:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Urine Mate, Welcome to the Club (03:41) 2 McFlurry (04:25) 3 My Jampandy (03:05) 4 Fizzy (02:54) 5 Donkey (02:52) 6 PPO Kissin Behinds (04:35) 7 Shit Streets Runny (03:03) 8 The Wage Dont Fit (03:03) 9 Showboat (02:36) 10 Dont Wanna Disco or Two (05:01) 11 £5.60 (03:14) 12 Kill It Clean (02:32) 13 Bored to Be Wild (03:06) |
| Austerity Dogs : Allmusic album Review : Armed with little more than a primitive drum machine, some flabby bass guitar, and a seemingly bottomless well of gripes and grievances, Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods set most of Britain in their crosshairs on their devastating debut LP, Austerity Dogs. The disillusioned youth who have traditionally hoarded punks essence dont stand a chance against 40-something Jason Williamson, whose irritated, ornery rants are delivered like a machine gun of disparagement over bandmate Andrew Fearns hammering lo-fi beats. A handful of singles and a 2012 self-released CD-R called Wank preceded this release, but Austerity Dogs, with its dead-on working-class takedowns and hard-won fury, feels like it came out of nowhere. Their blindingly simple formula of gritty stream-of-consciousness rapping/shouting over thin, Spartan beats and often two- or three-note basslines seems like it should have been done before, but one listen to the full-bore vitriol of "Fizzy" or "The Wage Dont Fit" and its clear that the Mods own this turf. Theres a brutal poeticism to the delivery as Williamson, in his thick Midlands accent, takes down horrible employers ("The cunt with the gut and the Buzz Lightyear haircut, calling the workers plebs"), other bands ("I hate that lad shit, that red top nice tits Ian McCulloch white boy bore me fuckless terrace bit"), and crappy clubs ("Pot-bellied promoters, cheap coasters, I cant get the fucking stain off"), or just spouts hilarious obscurities ("Im gonna wee in a basin, unleash a horrible looking vampire like James Mason"). Words like raw and honest come to mind, but really its the urgency of Austerity Dogs that makes it so thrilling. Its bound to polarize listeners, but ultimately it gives the impression of being fully armed throughout, and keeping up that kind of intensity is a tough trick to pull off. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 16 Title: Retweeted Released: 2014 Tracks: 23 Duration: 1:28:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 R&B Paul (03:57) 2 Graham (05:24) 3 Some of These Plants Are Burned (03:47) 4 My Music (03:32) 5 Armitage Shanks (04:43) 6 Dead Cities (03:49) 7 The Mekon (03:18) 8 Jobseeker (03:20) 9 Stevie (02:06) 10 Trixie (06:15) 11 Chefs Omlette (02:55) 1 Jason Stop Wanking (03:01) 2 Fuck All Realleh (02:32) 3 Chop Chop Chop (08:10) 4 Chaos Down in Soho - Original (01:56) 5 The Cherry Tree (03:30) 6 The Bride of Rankenstein (03:33) 7 Tramp Stamps and Trendy Bollocks (02:38) 8 Swarfega (02:25) 9 Double Diamond (04:10) 10 The Last Three Digits... (06:31) 11 Rollatruc (04:20) 12 Police! Stop! (03:02) |
 | Album: 8 of 16 Title: Chubbed Up. The Singles Collection. Released: 2014-02-14 Tracks: 12 Duration: 33:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 The Committee (03:41) 2 Jobseeker (04:02) 3 14 Day Court (03:27) 4 Black Monday (02:32) 5 Jolly Fucker (02:12) 6 Tweet Tweet Tweet (03:03) 7 Bambi (02:17) 8 Routine Dean (02:18) 9 Scenery (02:35) 10 Pubic Hair Ltd (02:44) 11 Bring Out the Cannons (01:50) 12 Fear of Anarchy (02:30) |
 | Album: 9 of 16 Title: Divide and Exit Released: 2014-05-23 Tracks: 14 Duration: 40:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Air Conditioning (02:26) 2 Tied Up in Nottz (02:41) 3 A Little Ditty (02:32) 4 You’re Brave (02:45) 5 Strike Force (02:50) 6 The Corgi (02:35) 7 From Rags to Richards (03:26) 8 Liveable Shit (03:19) 9 Under the Plastic and N.C.T. (03:18) 10 Tiswas (03:12) 11 Keep Out of It (03:00) 12 Smithy (02:22) 13 Middle Men (02:31) 14 Tweet Tweet Tweet (03:03) |
| Divide and Exit : Allmusic album Review : It took Sleaford Mods nearly eight years to make their breakthrough album, but what a breakthrough: Divide and Exit doesnt just build on the momentum Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn began with 2013s Austerity Dogs -- it kicks down the door and announces Sleaford Mods as one of the most truly punk outfits of the 2010s. Fearn and Williamson take aim at the stupidity in music, politics, and culture like theyre lancing a festering boil, and while the results arent pretty, theyre pretty cathartic. What would be rough edges or even mistakes in other bands work make up the heart of their music; theyre so insistent on getting their message across that theres no time for second takes. As on Austerity Dogs, Divide and Exits sound is spare and blunt: Fearns clattering beats borrow from industrial and hip-hop, while the gurgling basslines on "Air Conditioning" and "Strike Force" sound like theyre part garbage disposal. These grimy backdrops are set ablaze by Williamsons rapid-fire wit, which shows no signs of fading after nearly a decade. If anything, hes become an even more masterful conduit of anger, channeling it through highly quotable lyrics full of crude outbursts and scathing eloquence, often at the same time. Toilet imagery abounds on Divide and Exit: Williamson expresses his disgust for a clueless liberal frenemy (and himself) by wanking in the loo on "Youre Brave" and begins "Tied Up in Nottz" with pungent opening line "The smell of piss is so strong it smells like decent bacon." After venting their spleens on the albums first half, Sleaford Mods take a brainier, arguably more potent approach on the rest of Divide and Exit. With its ghostly backing vocals, "Tweet Tweet Tweet" conjures images of Fearn and Williamson surrounded, Shaun of the Dead-style, by complacent, social media-fixated zombies, while "Smithy"s helicopter samples put a finer point on the albums claustrophobic paranoia. Meanwhile, "Liveable Shit" borders on performance art in the way Williamson, his doubled vocals falling somewhere between hype man and nagging conscience, connects the dots between Jim Morrison, Gary Oldmans Dracula, and everyday injustices while shouting down canned laughter. While parts of Divide and Exit are extremely English, for every reference that flies over the heads of listeners outside of Blighty, many more connect. "Tiswas" takes its name from a British childrens television show from the 70s and 80s, but Williamson and Fearns frustration is palpable -- and universal. Though they delivered more nuance on their other 2014 releases (particularly the Tiswas EP), Divide and Exit is the brilliantly blunt gut-punch that began a momentous year for Sleaford Mods. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 16 Title: Fizzy Released: 2014-10 Tracks: 2 Duration: 06:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Fizzy (02:54) 2 Urine Mate Welcome To The Club (03:42) |
 | Album: 11 of 16 Title: Tiswas EP Released: 2014-11-24 Tracks: 5 Duration: 14:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Tiswas. (03:12) 2 Bunch of Cunts (02:23) 3 The Demon (02:58) 4 The Mail Dont Fail (03:03) 5 6 Horsemen (The Brixtons) (02:51) |
 | Album: 12 of 16 Title: Key Markets Released: 2015-07-24 Tracks: 12 Duration: 39:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Live Tonight (03:11) 2 No Ones Bothered (02:52) 3 Bronx in a Six (03:34) 4 Silly Me (03:14) 5 Cunt Make It Up (02:30) 6 Face to Faces (03:23) 7 Arabia (03:01) 8 In Quiet Streets (04:15) 9 Tarantula Deadly Cargo (03:21) 10 Rupert Trousers (03:13) 11 Giddy on the Ciggies (04:14) 12 The Blob (02:33) |
| Key Markets : Allmusic album Review : The acclaim for Sleaford Mods work grew nearly as quickly as their body of work: Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn recorded Key Markets around the time that Divide and Exit and Chubbed Up began appearing on "Best of 2014" lists. Fortunately, their speedy ascent didnt affect their approach or attitude; in fact, Key Markets might be even more pissed-off and contrary than their breakthrough album. While they may not have intended it as such, Divide and Exit was a major statement on 21st century dysfunction, full of pungent descriptions of frustrations big and small that struck a nerve with listeners worldwide. As hinted at by its title, Key Markets -- named after a grocery store Williamsons mother took him to in the 70s and 80s -- is more personal and insular, offering grimy close-ups instead of panoramas. He takes aim at the local music scene on "Live Tonight" and someone in it on "Cunt Make It Up," which features a memorable takedown: "Ya look like Rocket from the Crypt meets an old codger with one leg." Williamsons rants are often more direct and less poetic than they were on Divide and Exit, but picturesque speech abounds, ranging from turns of phrase like "all gone quiet on the wanker front" to his description of himself as "a little moaning arse fart blowing smoke" over seedy keyboard stabs on "Arabia." Indeed, musically speaking, Key Markets might be even more stripped down than either of Sleaford Mods 2014 releases. As always, the crudeness is the point -- this is the sound of running out of patience -- but Fearns backdrops more than hold up to Williamsons diatribes, and even offer a few flourishes. "Silly Me" dabbles in electro-funk, while "Tarantula Deadly Cargo" is an oddly compelling post-punk grind with a more live feel than most of the Mods output. As wittily as Williamson and Fearn tackle Key Markets smaller subjects, several of the best songs take aim at bigger targets, whether its the outrageous behavior of politicians and pop stars on "Face to Faces," the complacency of "No Ones Bothered," or the existential dread of "The Blob," which echoes the literal and figurative horror that made Divide and Exit so potent. While that was the album Sleaford Mods needed to make to gain a wide audience, Key Markets is the one that tells their listeners that theyll never stop raging against stupidity. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 16 Title: Live at SO36 Released: 2016-10-01 Tracks: 14 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Bunch of Cunts (?) 2 Live Tonight (?) 3 No-Ones Bothered (?) 4 Jolly Fucker (?) 5 A Little Ditty (?) 6 McFlurry (?) 7 Fizzy (?) 8 Routine Dean (?) 9 Bronx in a Six (?) 10 Tiswas (?) 11 Tied Up in Nottz (?) 12 Jobseeker (?) 13 Tarantula Deadly Cargo (?) 14 Tweet Tweet Tweet (?) |
 | Album: 14 of 16 Title: TCR Released: 2016-10-14 Tracks: 5 Duration: 17:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 TCR (04:11) 2 I Can Tell (03:41) 3 Britain Thirst (03:20) 4 Dad’s Corner (02:37) 5 You’re a Nottshead (03:28) |
 | Album: 15 of 16 Title: English Tapas Released: 2017-03-03 Tracks: 12 Duration: 37:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Army Nights (03:03) 2 Just Like We Do (02:55) 3 Moptop (02:38) 4 Messy Anywhere (03:13) 5 Time Sands (03:10) 6 Snout (02:44) 7 Drayton Manored (03:36) 8 Carlton Touts (02:53) 9 Cuddly (03:44) 10 Dull (02:42) 11 B.H.S. (03:48) 12 I Feel So Wrong (03:12) |
| English Tapas : Allmusic album Review : Sleaford Mods were ahead of the curve when it came to reintroducing politics to music, and if English Tapas is anything to go by, theyre also on the cutting edge of post-Brexit weariness. As on Key Markets, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn serve up more character-driven songs that express their constant -- and always timely -- frustrations, whether theyre skewering machismo on "Army Nights" or 21st century solipsism on songs like the attention-seeking "Snout" or "Just Like We Do," which calls out "pretentious little bastards on social medias." The duos state of mind on English Tapas was foreshadowed not only on Key Markets but the T.C.R. EP, whose title track used a toy race car set as a nostalgic metaphor for spinning ones wheels. Fearn and Williamson capture this feeling of being stuck even more literally on ultra-repetitive tracks such as "Time Sands," where crickets and a hip-hop beat create a loop of despair, and "Cuddly," one of the few songs that mentions Brexit by name. Indeed, Sleaford Mods austerity sounds more grim than bracing on English Tapas, a phrase Fearn saw on a pubs menu board for an item consisting of half a scotch egg, chips, a mini pork pie, and a pickle. With food like that, its better to focus on drinking, and alcohol features prominently on "Messy Anywhere," "Carlton Touts," and "Drayton Manored," where Williamsons enervated harmonies when he sings "have you ever wondered why you wonder why?" underscore the feelings of emptiness that shadow the album. Perversely, the duo puts some of the catchiest songs at the end of English Tapas, though the increased hooks do little to lighten Williamsons words and mood. On "Dull," he spits out the title like it tastes bad, while "B.H.S." sets his hopelessness to a more active beat. He and Williamson close the album with the standout "I Feel So Wrong," one of their most melodic -- and desperate-sounding -- songs yet. Its an apt finale to English Tapas numbness and frustration; it might not be as much fun as some of Sleaford Mods earlier albums, but thats the point. | ||
 | Album: 16 of 16 Title: Eton Alive Released: 2019-02-21 Tracks: 12 Duration: 38:44 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 Into the Payzone (02:17) 2 Kebab Spider (03:40) 3 Policy Cream (03:29) 4 O.B.C.T (04:05) 5 When You Come up To Me (03:43) 6 Top It Up (02:45) 7 Flipside (02:40) 8 Subtraction (03:16) 9 Firewall (03:22) 10 Big Burt (03:20) 11 Discourse (03:21) 12 Negative Script (02:46) |