Review Summary: It's all been said before, but there's always a point worth making so say it again and shout it louder.
The Sleaford Mods are a duo who pick up, digest and spit out the day to day mundanity of modern day cultural mulch by confronting it with good old fashioned humour, rage and D.I.Y simplicity.
There is no other band around at the minute who are daring to break from conformity and do their own thing on such plain and simple terms and yet hit the nail so strikingly on the head.
The brilliantly titled English Tapas is the Nottingham duos first foray into a fully rounded, stereo produced album and despite some genuine singing from vocalist Jason Williamson (including a full on crooned closer) the Mods sound has lost nothing in the formula of repeated loops, minimal beats and warts and all ranted vitriol. Compromise is non-existent in the Mods world and our world is what they are going to take the piss out of whether you like it or not.
Musically there is nothing to deconstruct here. This is sparked, stabbed, buckshot electronic beats with bass compiled by Andrew Fern to frame Williamsons’ passionately conveyed vocals about sincerely observed cultural topics encompassing Brexit, the elite, paranoia, trendy nonsense, superficiality, brazen drug use, frivolity, getting spannered and bollocks politics.
Drayton Manored with it’s chorus of “A trip to SPAR is like a trip to Mars” having confessed that “We are the dumb Brits lobbing down one pint cans of imported ***.” says more about the populous that walk the littered streets than anything you will hear from non exisitent authorities on the matter.
Every song here has at least one lyric that strikes either comically, ferociously, or as an outright address to the nation.
The album is an insight into reality for those who have lived it. The dreams over, the dawning realisation that things are *** has become something to deal with so make things more bearable, bob your head and chant along with the Mods. They are here to save you……YOU FAT BASTARDS YOU FAT BASTARDS