Sleaford Mods EP

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:15:11
Recording information: JT Soars, Nottingham (2018). Photographer: Duncan Stafford. Sleaford Mods' EPs have always been as vital to their body of work as their albums, and this self-titled set of five songs is no exception. Though it seemed like Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn couldn't get any bleaker than they did on English Tapas, Sleaford Mods' brisk tempos and jaunty keyboards mask a viewpoint that's possibly even more despairing than before. Similarly, the characters in these blunt but deceptively layered tracks transform their free-floating rage at class warfare, corruption, and oppression into petty acts of violence aimed at the nearest target. On the excellent "Stick in a Five and Go," Williamson plots to beat up an online troll by posing as a mailman; when he growls "you need to sign for it, mate" over Fearn's goading bassline, the need to hold someone -- anyone -- accountable is almost tangible. As immediate as Sleaford Mods' frustrations might seem, the duo exposes its history with brilliantly chosen imagery. "Gallows Hill" is another standout: a glowering grind that juxtaposes a Victorian-era graveyard's previous incarnation as a public execution space with its present as a spot for drug deals and sex trafficking, it feels and sounds like a haunted, tainted loop of suffering. "Bang Someone Out" echoes this sentiment evocatively when Williamson pauses the song's catharsis to note, "the plague rolls down from the hills up there...this is how it's gone on in the United Kingdom." Perhaps even more so than on their albums, Sleaford Mods distill the songs on their EPs into potent vignettes. Loosely inspired by Williamson's stint as a glass collector in a pub, saving leftover drinks for himself, "Dregs" sketches a life eked out on scraps with the simple line "the dregs are mine tonight." As vivid, eloquent, and artfully ugly as any of their full-lengths, Sleaford Mods proves once again that there's no such thing as a stopgap release in Fearn and Williamson's world. ~ Heather Phares