SLEAFORD MODS - Spare Ribs LP (Clear Green Vinyl)

Label: Rough Trade

On Spare Ribs, Sleaford Mods prove once again that they're capable of not just surviving but thriving during difficult times. Largely written and recorded during the COVID-19 global pandemic, its songs are very much of the moment -- and what a moment.

The paranoia and claustrophobia always lurking around the edges of the band's music only feel more urgent and relevant on "Out There," where the disease lurks around every corner, and "Top Room," which telegraphs the frustrations of families piled on top of each other in lockdown in its itchy. "Short Cummings," a bass-heavy rant against Johnson's former Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings, was actually written months before he came under fire for breaching lockdown, reaffirming that Sleaford Mods' awareness of politicians' hypocrisy borders on the prophetic.

Not even a global pandemic and repeated lockdowns can crush their spirit, and Spare Ribs feels like a hearty, timely, and well-deserved two fingers up to the powers that be.