Sleaford Mods: UK Grim track by track review

Sleaford Mods are back with their seventh album as a duo titled 'UK Grim'. As the title suggests, it is a cutting examination of modern Britain, and at this point what else would we expect from them? We thought we'd take a look at their latest effort on a track-by-track basis. 

 

UK GRIM

To little surprise, 'UK GRIM' is off to a political start with mentions of Putin and the Conservative Government. A world of class and wealth disparity, they paint a portrait of a country that is a far from developed "first world country". It's time to throw the country in the bin and start again.

 

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Dlwhy

With a mixture of scattered beats and the heavily accented vocals of Jason Williamson. They do a brutal takedown of the white-dominated post-punk bands that are popular in the UK at the moment. Never ones to play nice with other bands, they deliver some gloriously cutting takedowns. 

 

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Force 10 From Navarone

This track has more of a bassline feel to it. There are licks of guitar in there too before Dry Cleaning's Florence Shaw comes in with her typical deadpan delivery which in the world of Sleaford Mods is used to its most brutal potential. 

 

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Tilldipper

We get a constant stream of bass and guttural noise, a song that starts with an instant sense of panic. "Sod it all, everything's sh*t anyway" is just one of the lyrics you can take from this. It's already a memorable album just from the lyrics alone. 

 

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On The Ground

For just a laptop and a bass guitar, these two know how to make one hell of a racket. If you showed this to a Tory it would probably make them hide under a desk, this is music for the working class actually made by artists from a working-class background. This track is full of electric distortion and discontent riffs. 

 

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Right Wing Beast

There's no one who rallies against the Conservatives and their surrounding ideologies like Sleaford Mods. This song rallies against the spheres of influence that the right-wing hold such as their almost total control of the media and how people are too easily swayed into their opinions. 

 

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Smash Each Other Up

This album is best described as the bleakest possible representation of Modern Britain. "No country, now we're distraught". Here, there are fistfights in Sainsbury's car parks and a wave of polarised anger towards each other in the British public.

 

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Don

We get another character assassination here, something that Sleaford Mods have delighted in throughout their career. There are some really pleasing bass guitar sections on this track. It isn't their most engaging song though and does suffer a bit from repetition. 

 

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So Trendy

One of the most unique beats on the album to date, there's a contrasting floating feeling and a robotic one at the same time. Jane's Addiction's vocalist Perry Farrell makes an appearance throughout, as Sleaford Mods contemplate not being able to keep up with the trends.

 

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I Claudius

"What chance does the kid you had have?" "What's wrong with loving your country? Everything!" The duo are on top form here again, at their observant and slightly disgusting best. 

 

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Pit 2 Pit

One of those that seems to sound as if you're dancing around the results of an arson attack, it is a downright evil sound that this song conjures. Williamson sounds as though he revels in a perspective of absolute chaos, where he is the unashamed ringleader. There's reference to the post-lockdown psyche.

 

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Apart From You

We have some piano keys join the bass and distant, bleak sounds in the background. The whole track is a strange combination of elements and doesn't quite seem to fit together as well as the duo think. 

 

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Tory Kong

It starts as a chat between blokes before breaking out into a percussion-heavy beat. They seem to be suggesting that the UK is almost a version of Kong Island. It features Williamson's most aggressive vocals of the album so far. For a song with the word Tory in the title you'd expect it to be more of a direct attack.

 

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Rhythms Of Class

It's a track that feels very similar to the rest of the album, plenty of memorable lyrics and a certain sense of sparseness to their instrumentals that are mainly dominated by drums and bass guitar.

 

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This is exactly what you'd expect from a Sleaford Mods album. A grim depiction of modern Britain that brutally laments the powers that be and the ensuing societal division we see as a result. There's nothing new about Sleaford Mods' formula but it is a damn good one that sees them as some of the UK's most brutally honest and lyrically sharp musicians.

 

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