Albums
The Demise Of Planet X
2026
Release Date: 2026
By Pitchfork
Reviewed January 26, 2026
The UK duo continues to rail against austerity and oppression on its 13th record. At worst, the album lapses into vague gesturing; at best, it turns diatribes into dialogues with guest vocalists.
Judging by his on-wax persona, Sleaford Mods vocalist Jason Williamson is the sort of guy you’d cross the street to avoid. He’s a yeller, a brawler, a complainer with a quick fuse, mad about his job and whatever he saw on TV. Although the title of Sleaford Mods’ 13th album, The Demise of Planet X, references a mid-’90s doomsday theory, the environs will be plenty familiar to listeners—in Williamson’s England, apocalypse is a day ending in Y. The Nottingham outfit dramatizes the ravages of austerity and class warfare, distilling elements of punk, rap, and electronica into a chest-thumping fury. Williamson’s pugnacious lyrics are grounded in manual labor and local indignities, but Planet X’s malaise transcends any neighborhood or job site, toeing the line between angst and grievance.