A decade since this relentless, no-nonsense self-produced album was released and it still speaks volumes of how times in the UK have NOT changed. The Sleaford Mods’ seventh album, Divide and Exit, has been remastered for its tenth anniversary.
This project pulls no punches with their honest opinions on the Royal family, the rich, politics and how cruel life can be for most people in post-austerity Britain.
Going into reviewing this album I was familiar with a couple tracks and other work from Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn, but mostly I was going in blind with the suspicion of what I was going to hear. My suspicion was proven right from the first track. Coming out of the gate on Air Conditioning the album’s tone is set with a deep, muddy, distorted bassline and well-programmed drum machine then shattered by Jason’s ferocious delivery and vitriol. All constants throughout the album, weighing on you like an unanswered problem.
The second track on the album Tied up in Nottz, is one song I already knew before and is still my highlight from the project, because of its moody and muddy instrumentation dubbed over with some of the most nonsensical, funny and graphic lyrics about drinking, drugs and the aftermath. Including one of the best opening lyrics I’ve heard, “The smell of piss is so strong it smells like decent bacon” that by itself has been cemented in my mind. There’s just something about the song that’s captivating and interesting, and that’s kept this song on repeat in my head since the first listen. The lyrics make no real sense but create a dark and depraved scene in your mind of someone’s night out and possibly the morning after.
The Corgi is another track that has bitter vitriol. Criticising the Royal Family over their wealth and privilege to have “the driveway and the range [rover]” and are always comfortable, warm and safe, “it’s always warm at night”. Juxtaposing some families in the UK that barely have food in their bellies and cupboards and likely will go to sleep cold most nights. Then subtly mentioned are references to the world wars, “Trench foot horrors they overtake me”, wars in which the royal families had a hand in starting but mostly didn’t have any involvement, because of their status and privilege. Sleaford Mods excellently express pent-up disdain and possibly hatred towards the Royal Family. I’m sure this sentiment is shared amongst young listeners today and when the album originally came out. Likely due to the disconnect between royalty and reality, such as the cost-of-living crisis, their lack of empathy towards it and barely contributing towards society in a meaningful way.
The fourteenth and last song of Divide and Exit, Tweet Tweet Tweet sounds ominous and apocalyptic with Jason’s chanting and that drab-sounding bassline underneath. The lyrics match the looming sound of the UK’s political climate. Back in 2014, the rise in the number of far-right political and radical groups was growing, the biggest of them all and mentioned in the song is the UKIP party (today they go by Reform UK). “UKIP and your disgrace”, “your” is blaming the whole UK for letting this come to rise and UKIP might have the double meaning of the political party and kip meaning sleep, saying the UK was asleep and nobody, government or otherwise stopped politics from becoming radical. “All you zombies tweet, tweet, tweet”, zombies being people who now are getting involved with politics when it’s too late through sharing their opinions on Twitter, calling it futile. The song boils down to that, saying the country was on autopilot and has gone far right, no one wants to get involved and everybody’s miserable, “Cheer up you fuckin’ bastard!”. So certainly not a song to be listened to lightly.
As a whole this album isn’t something that can be listened to casually, it’s really something you have to pay attention to and be in the right mood for. I’d say that mood is you want to fight someone in a pub for saying “I agree with reform”.
Apart from two tunes that appear on a limited edition flexi disc, this great tenth-anniversary release didn’t include any bonus tracks though, you just get the fourteen tracks remastered. A great listen nonetheless and something to revisit. In my eyes this project is an accurate time stamp of how the UK was then, hitting the nail on the head and projecting the sentiment that the UK shared.
Sleaford Mods: Divide and Exit – Out 26th July 2024 (Rough Trade)
