Sleaford Mods announce their debut album Divide and Exit will receive a reissue on July 26, 2024 via Rough Trade Records. The UK artists will tour the album this fall, playing a series of intimate gigs across the UK at the kind of grassroots venues they were performing at when the album was first released. The remastered version of ‘Tied Up In Nottz’ is out today – a vivid snapshot of UK grimness which remains a cornerstone of the duo’s live set, the single is accompanied by a restored version of the song’s 2014 video featuring the band riding around their native Nottingham on a ‘borrowed’ bus.

Originally released in May 2014, not only did Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson’s second ‘proper’ album (or sixth if you go back through the early CD-R efforts), capture the ‘death by a million vested interests’ malaise that was engulfing British society as contaminative politics oozed its core, but its union of strong words and minimal electronics saw a fresh voice articulated a much-needed rage, anger, hurt and hope. Fully remastered, and with initial vinyl copies featuring a special new sleeve designed by the duo’s friend and collaborator British artist Cold War Steve, this new edition offers a chance to fully appreciate a band hitting their artistic stride while acknowledging (and commiserating) that its rebuttal of many of the dark forces that triggered its creation remains sadly relevant today.

“Where our previous album Austerity Dogs barked a directionless yet solid form of anger, Divide and 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. Listening to it now, Divide and Exit is perhaps the most punk record we have done,” concludes Williamson, reflecting how Sleaford Mods felt on their own, covering fresh territory while making this music before inspiring a raft of post-punk-infused artists to follow their lead in the album’s aftermath. “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.”

The new edition of Divide and Exit will feature new sleeve notes written by frontman Williamson, and The Wire’s 2014 interview with the band, conducted by incomparable Mark Fisher, will be reprinted in full. A limited-edition flexi disc, with featuring the never released track ‘Git Some Balls’ and artwork by Jason Williamson, will also be included with initial editions. A CD version of the album featuring the Cold War Steve artwork will be available exclusively from Sleaford Mods and Rough Trade Records online shops, while the new cover will feature on a one-off t-shirt. Also available from the band’s web store, the t-shirt continues Sleaford Mods ongoing collaboration with War Child UK, with all proceeds from its sale going to the charity.

Sleaford Mods 2024 Tour Dates

19 November – Sheffield – The Leadmill
20 November – Edinburgh – La Belle Angèle
21 November – Newcastle upon Tyne – University of Northumbria
23 November – Liverpool – The Florrie
26 November – Lincoln – The Drill
28 November – Exeter – The Lemon Grove
29 November – Portsmouth – The Wedgewood Rooms
30 November – Nottingham – Bodega

pre-order or pre-save Divide and Exit HERE