Sleaford Mods - Divide & Exit (Harbinger Sound)

Sleaford Mods – Divide & Exit (Harbinger Sound)

sleafordmod

Ever since Hunter S Thompson got his arse handed to him by the Hell’s Angels and built a career on it, writers have got their kicks and their cred from cosying up to the rough boys. For rock journalists this has variously involved hanging out in Little Hulton with Happy Mondays, making excuses for misogynistic/homophobic rappers, or comparing Mike Skinner’s witless tales of fags and kebab shops to Dostoevsky – a quick bit of rough before going back to eulogising Radiohead or The National.  

Latest beneficiaries of music journalism’s frequently misguided nostalgie de la boue are Nottingham’s ridiculous Sleaford Mods, a novelty act consisting of two stereotypical “geezers” seemingly dragged out of the nearest boozer, handed a cheap keyboard & a case of Stella, and instructed to see if that theory about monkeys, typewriters and Shakespeare also works with music. It doesn’t.

Jason Williamson’s Notts-accented stream-of-consciousness delivery (sample lyric: “I woke up with shit in me sock, outside the Polish off-licence”) has led to numerous comparisons to The Fall, John Cooper Clarke and the aforementioned Happy Mondays, all of whom should be suing for defamation; Williamson actually has more in common with hapless YouTube Brit-rappers such as Huddersfield’s DJ Smile or Northampton’s Dave Neurotic, who at least have the saving grace of charm and good humour. Musically, Andrew Fearns’ primitive keyboard preset tunes are reminiscent of legendary outsider artist Wesley Willis, who at least had the excuses of homelessness, drug addiction and schizophrenia to fall back on. Even more amusingly, the duo are frequently praised as some kind of authentic voice of working-class Britain – aye, when I were a lad it were all useless rapping & Bontempi organs round our way.

So what does Divide & Exit actually sound like? You know that bloke in your roughest local pub – terminally unemployed, always cadging a pint or a fag, usually has a holdall stuffed with knockoff designer gear, duty-free cigs or plumbing equipment, which he’ll try to sell to you and then get all lairy when you don’t want to buy, usually ends the night getting into a ruck. Thinks he’s a jack-the-lad, a comedian, a wheeler-dealer, when really he’s not. Well, he’s ranting at you, telling you hard-luck stories, moaning about his neighbours, his missus, the DSS, and all the others he believes are responsible for his shitty life, and he looks and sounds like he might give you a slap at the slightest provocation. The beer’s flat and the crisps are stale. The Tweenies’ Karaoke Collection is playing in the background. And there’s a bunch of hipsters in the corner “ironically” enjoying the traditional pub ambience, pretending it’s earthy and real and enjoyable.

When in reality, it’s fucking terrible.

[Rating:0]

  1. “You know that bloke in your roughest local pub – terminally unemployed, always cadging a pint or a fag, usually has a holdall stuffed with knockoff designer gear, duty-free cigs or plumbing equipment, which he’ll try to sell to you and then get all lairy when you don’t want to buy, usually ends the night getting into a ruck. Thinks he’s a jack-the-lad, a comedian, a wheeler-dealer, when really he’s just a cunt. Well, he’s ranting at you, telling you hard-luck stories, moaning about his neighbours, his missus, the DSS, and all the others he believes are responsible for his shitty life, and he looks and sounds like he might give you a slap at the slightest provocation.”

    No, I don’t know that bloke. Because he’s entirely a figment of your class-hatred soaked imagination, you cretinous pillock. Has it ever crossed your mind that, y’know, certain structures (including the DWP, as the DSS is now known) might be responsible for peoples’ shitty lives? Or do you think they just deserve it cos they’re lazy/pissed? Take a fucking look at yourself if it’s the latter.

    And do you understand that shitness can be peformative? That shit lyrics about shit lives can be effective at conveying the shitness of those shit lives? That basic beats can convey something of the drudgery of working class existence? Did you read any of the positive reviews of Sleaford Mods and try to understand what they’re getting at, or did you just pathologize the writers of them from the off? Did you ever consider that not everyone writing a music review is well off?

    Fuck this class-hatred bullshit.

  2. That last paragraph is terrible, next time you indulge in your class fantasies, try not to get real life confused with Shameless. And why the little dig at hipsters? You completely undermine your own point by looking like a bitter middle class no mark white boy.

    I actually don’t entirely disagree with what you are saying otherwise.

  3. If you give a shit that there are hipsters in the corner of the room then you really are missing the point mate.

    What do you really have to say? REALLY have to say? Apart from whinging about stuff. What do you have to contribute?
    If the what he’s saying is bollocks then please enlighten me with your version of the way things are.

  4. I pity people who are so detached from reality, like this ‘reviewer’.
    Stick to writing about Ellie Goulding, mate.

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God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.