SLEAFORD MODS - The Demise Of Planet X

It's hard, these days, to argue with Jason Williamson's mood: angry, disillusioned, bleak, but also paradoxically lucid in photographing the present. With "The Demise Of Planet X", Sleaford Mods return to their usual formula built on Andrew Fearn's electronic raids, dry iterative tracks that leave total space for Williamson's visceral spoken word, who from chronicler of British disenchantment has by now transformed into a global interpreter of contemporary malaise.

Acting as the project's godmother is the mocking laugh of dragon queen Gwendoline Christie, which opens "The Good Life", a very catchy track built on the contrast between the frontman's aggressive tone and the glacial elegance à-la Bowie of Joe Hicklin from Big Special.

Among the many "fucks" hurled at vanity, consumerist culture and contemporary machismo, real gems emerge. "Elitest G.O.A.T." is one of the best: against narcissistic exhibitionism and the "best of all" culture, Williamson finds in the refined voice of Aldous Harding a counterpoint that amplifies the sense of alienation. "Megaton", with its explosive, relentless bass, represents the record's most energetic and corrosive side, while "No Touch", enriched by a collaboration with Sue Tompkins, balances tension and introspection with a more calibrated, subtle groove.

The album's title track perfectly sums up the duo's poetics: mechanical rhythm, hypnotic bass, sarcasm and desperation woven into a single verbal flow. It's the portrait of a world at breaking point, but also of a humanity unable to stop consuming itself. In "Bad Santa", many have picked up on a direct reference to Donald Trump and, more broadly, to the flaunting of male power.

In "Gina Was" Williamson, for once, drops the mad preacher tone and lets a crack show in his voice, recounting an episode of teenage bullying he suffered. Entirely new for the duo are the full-bodied tones and soul inflections of "Flood The Zone", enriched by the presence of Liam Bailey. "Kill List", on the other hand, digs into the grime terrain where we'd left them with the previous "UK Grim": jagged beats and a brutal energy that show how the two, from their beginnings to today, have only honed a more mature production awareness. No mannerism, no fatigue: just the lucidity of those who keep finding in the world (alas) new material to fuel their fulminate-cotton blasts.

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27/01/2026