Sleaford Mods share new single 'The Good Life' featuring Gwendoline Christie and Big Special • GRIMM Gent

Sleaford Mods will release their new album, ‘The Demise Of Planet X’, on 16 January 2026 via Rough Trade Records.

Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson’s most expansive and ambitious release to date, the album features a rare guest appearance from former Life Without Buildings frontwoman Sue Tompkins, plus collaborations with Aldous Harding, soul singer Liam Bailey and grime MC Snowy, the latter two both hailing from band’s hometown Nottingham.

In her first foray into music, actress Gwendoline Christie (Wednesday/Severance/Game Of Thrones) also joins Midlands band Big Special on Sleaford Mods new single The Good Life, which is released today accompanied by a video directed by Ben Wheatley (The Kill List/A Field In England/Bulk).

Boasting the duo’s most varied and expressive musical approach so far, ‘The Demise Of Planet X’ charts, critiques and satirises our times, while offering a universal cry of anger and release of energy that pushes against the encroaching cultural darkness. Contemplating the world coming to an end not with a big bang but in slowly rising tide of irritating mundanity, ‘The Demise Of Planet X’ strikes back with vivid sonics, acerbic words, enveloping atmospheres and a engaging wit across 13 tracks that will move hearts, minds and feet.

‘“The Demise Of Planet X’ represents a life lived under immense uncertainty, shaped by mass trauma,” declares frontman Jason Williamson. “When we wrote the last album, it was about stagnation, a country that felt like a lifeless corpse. Three years later, that corpse has been split open by war, genocide, and the lingering psychological fallout of Covid whilst social media has mutated into a grotesque, twisted form of digital engineering. It feels like we’re living among the ruins. A multi-layered abomination etched into our collective psyche.”

He adds: “I don’t want to pat myself on the back while the rest of the world falls to shit, but we’re really happy with ‘The Demise Of Planet X’. The music and ideas are really fresh and it’s in your face, but it pays to put your glasses on to look at the ingredients.”

First single, the aforementioned ‘The Good Life’, captures this mix of public and personal apocalypse, as Andrew Fearn’s urgent beats and enticing melodies combine with Williamson’s machine gun diction to chart the impact of some of the Sleaford Mods’ frontman’s more infamous comments on the current music scene. Big Special and Gwendoline Christie give voice to his conflicted and tormented inner voices mopping up the fallout his outburst cause.

“’The Good Life’ talks about slagging bands off and the joy and misery that causes me. I’m asking myself why am I slagging bands off. Why is it a continuing thing with me? My inner voices are brought to life by Gwendoline and Big Special, debating that internal tension between me enjoying a good life or submitting to the mayhem,” explains Williamson.

The track’s video, available to watch now via the band’s YouTube channel, brings these voices together in the flesh under Ben Wheatley’s charismatic direction.

“It’s brilliant to be working with Andrew and Jason again on a Mods promo, this time teaming up with the amazing Gwendoline Christie and Big Special,” declares British director who was previously responsible for Sleaford Mods’ Mork n Mindy video. “I’m a long-time fan so it’s always exciting to get the call to come out to play.”

Alongside ‘The Good Life’, the album features cliche-bursting 2025 single ‘Megaton’, ‘Elitest G.O.A.T.’ with its light-as-cloud guest vocals from Aldous Harding, the reflective, toxic masculinity pricking ‘Bad Santa’ and the Magic Roundabout-infused bouncy rap of the title track.

Nottingham singer-songwriter Liam Bailey adds a soulful lament to world-weary MAGA takedown ‘Flood The Zone’; grime rapper Snowy drops decisive bars on ‘Kill List’s’ horror hip hop (its central imagery inspired by Ben Wheatley’s film of the same), while for ‘No Touch’ Sleaford Mods managed to lure Sue Tompkins from the much-missed Life Without Buildings back into the studio. Duetting with Williamson, the pair’s distinctly human voices intertwine over a slinky bass and music box keyboard motif.

Several limited-edition versions of ‘The Demise Of Planet X’ will be available on release, which can be pre-ordered now.