In the spring of 2009, Gallows took a look at the state of the nation, and delivered the scathing, furiously angry, despairing Grey Britain. Fifteen years on, Bad Breeding's analysis of where we stand ahead of next month's general election - featuring parties led by a National Service-advocate richer than King Charles III, a Knight of the Realm (and former human rights lawyer) whose call for a ceasefire in Gaza came only after the death toll passed 30,000, and a public school-educated ex-City trader who cites the late Enoch Powell as a "political hero" and fawns over Donald Trump - is even more damning.
"How have we arrived at such a juncture where workers teeter towards an inequality gap reminiscent of Victorian Britain while the gilded class prosper and portion out blame, pushing the lie that meritocracy is king, that you get what you deserve." This question is posed in an essay titled River, one of three thought-provoking texts included with the Stevenage quartet's follow-up to 2022's excellent Human Capital album. The fundamental answer, the band suggest, as per the title of their fifth record, is that the ruling classes have nothing but contempt for those 'beneath' them. "Only when we realise and utilise the utter contempt held for us can we reach a level of class consciousness that will provide an adequate challenge to capital," states frontman Christopher Dodd, an analysis rooted in the same sort of anger and frustration which led Geezer Butler to write his scathing lyrics for War Pigs, and John Fogerty to conceive the caustic Fortunate Son.
