Divide and Exit (10th Anniversary Edition)
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May 19 marks 10 years of Sleaford Mods seminal album, Divide And Exit.
Allying strong words and minimal electronics, Sleaford Mods’ second ‘proper’ album (or sixth if you go back through the early CD-R efforts) the self-released Divide And Exit was not only Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson’s most effective artistic expression to that point, it also truly captured the taste of a land souring by the day.
Now set for a reissue through Rough Trade Records to mark the record’s tenth anniversary, the fully remastered album – complete with a limited-edition LP sleeve designed by Cold War Steve – offers a chance to fully appreciate a band beginning to hit their artistic stride while acknowledging and commiserating that many of the dark forces that inspired its creation linger on. Yet once again it is possible revel in the hopeful anger that underpins Sleaford Mods’ blasts of outrage and electro.
“Where our previous album Austerity Dogs barked a directionless yet solid form of anger, Divide & Exit then carried this basic form of class consciousness,” says Williamson of the vision behind the record, both musically and lyrically.
“After the release of Austerity Dogs we realised we had seemingly created a formula,” he adds. “Andrew just took the formula and ran with it and his music started to sound much more compact and urgent.”
Out on 26 July, the 10th anniversary edition of Divide And Exit will be preceded by the release of the remastered version of Tied Up In Nottz on 20 May, a vivid snapshot of UK grimness that remains one of the cornerstones of the duo’s live set. The song’s video from 2014, featuring the pair riding around their native Nottingham on a ‘borrowed’ bus, will also be available via Sleaford Mods’ YouTube channel for the first time.
As well as been fully remastered, Williamson has written new sleevenotes to accompany the album while The Wire’s interview with the band from the time, conducted by the incomparable Mark Fisher, is being reprinted in full.
Additionally, Cold War Steve has placed the iconic photo of the duo from the album’s original sleeve into a new nightmare-ish collage, underlining the Hogarthian qualities of the music contained within. This new artwork will be limited to the initial pressing of the reissued LP.
“Listening to it now, Divide & Exit is perhaps the most punk record we have done,” says Williamson, reflecting on how Sleaford Mods felt out ahead, covering fresh ground alone at the time, before going on to inspire a raft of post-punk-infused artists to follow their lead in the album’s aftermath. “Each song falls out of the last like an extension or whatever. There wasn’t anyone in the country doing what we were doing at that point, it feels like it was 30 years ago, but it’s only been 10. Mad as fuck.”
