Sleaford Mods: Divide and Exit review – electro-punk with bracing humour

It would be easy to go overboard about Sleaford Mods – here at last is the authentic voice of dispossessed England! The soundtrack to austerity! The poets laureate of the council estates! – but, judging by their seventh album, "singer" Jason Williamson would scorn the notion. What Divide and Exit offers is disgust – not with the the state of the nation, but with everything: people wallowing in nostalgia watching old punk bands; "vegetarian vets"; those who leave workplace toilets smelling; "St George's flag twats" and buses whose gears grind. It even sounds like it offers disgust at those who do nothing but express their own disgust: "Nicked your biscuits, laughed with your mates, wanked in the toilet, you fucking tit rifle," says Williamson before offering the mordant chorus: "You're brave," which sounds like it's directed back at the song's narrator. It's most reminiscent of another duo who backed spoken mockery of contemporary culture with none-more-spartan music, I, Ludicrous. But the humour in Sleaford Mods isn't inclusive; it's bracing and horrific.