10 Best Rock Duos Of All Time
6. Sleaford Mods
These two brash blokes from Nottingham are not for those who dislike swearing, lo-fi beats, rage, or aggressive lyrical potshots at all and sundry. Vocalist Jason Williamson and beat maker/laptop jockey Andrew Fearn have made a cottage industry out of confrontational music that’s half John Cooper Clark, half Kraftwerk, and all seething righteousness directed at the ills of modern Britain.
It’s not music to relax to, but it’s incredibly enjoyable when they get on a good tear. “Bronx in a Six” from their particularly well received Key Markets album is a favourite, a lyrically sprawling track that takes in drug culture and an amusing reference to the time Jack White beat up the guy from the Von Bondies.
Perhaps their definitive track remains “Jobseeker”, a single that tells you everything you need to know about the duo. It’s a motormouthed, incredibly radio unfriendly track that lacerates the government and its betrayal of the working classes, but simultaneously turns its ire inwards on the narrator and his inability to change his situation.
They’ve got one trick, do Sleaford Mods, but they do it incredibly well. It’s angry music but with reason and thought, and it’s often very funny.