Sleaford Mods : Divide & Exit

It took Sleaford Mods nearly eight years to make their breakthrough album, but what a breakthrough: Divide and Exit doesn't just build on the momentum Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn began with 2013's Austerity Dogs, it kicks down the door and announces Sleaford Mods as one of the most truly punk outfits of the 2010s. Fearn and Williamson take aim at the stupidity in music, politics, and culture like they're lancing a festering boil, and while the results aren't pretty, they're pretty cathartic. What would be rough edges or even mistakes in other bands' work make up the heart of their music; they're so insistent on getting their message across that there's no time for second takes. As on Austerity Dogs, Divide and Exit's sound is stark and blunt: Fearn's clattering beats borrow from industrial and hip-hop, while the gurgling basslines on "Air Conditioning" and "Strike Force" sound like they're part garbage disposal. These grimy backdrops are s