Takin’ It To The Streets

The Streets, aka Mike Skinner, exploded onto the music scene in 2002 like a breath of fresh breath of Brit-tinted poetic air. His debut, Original Pirate Material, was quick, tight and mean. There was renegade potential there, and the beats and rhymes displayed an inventiveness and genre-skipping versatility that caught a lot of attention and raised a lot of hopes. His follow-up, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, was an exercise in lyrical sharpening, but the beats took a slight downturn. Nevertheless, the album sounded ambitious, and the fucker went triple platinum. I was excited to see what would come next.

Move ahead two years to 2006, when a drug-addled Skinner issued a big “fuck you” to both his fans and his legitimacy as an artist by way of The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living. There were no beat breakthroughs, no rhythm- just a guy self-absorbed enough to think other people want to hear about his lonely, cracked out life. It was… what do they call it over there? Rubbish. And guess what? Nobody bought it.

Naturally, Act III in any addicted artist’s portfolio is the sober revival, the rejuvenation, the reawakening. Everything Is Borrowed is supposed to be Skinner’s big comeback, but what’s supposed to pass for genre-transcending genius comes across only as the testament of a newly sober addict, trying to tell everyone that life is worth living. It’s the midlife crisis of the stars- ask Scott Weiland, he’s been on this ride for about a decade now.

The best thing you could say about the album is that these are Skinner’s most detailed beats yet, and there’s a newfound sense of soul that, predictable as it is, serves the mood well. They’re not his best, but there’s a rainy day appreciation here that’s not to be ignored. There’s a grubby, Yamaha keyboard-type appeal to Heaven For The Weather, and it’s got a chorus that gets you moving: I wanna go to heaven for the weather, hell for the company…

I Love You More (Than You Like Me) is just ridiculous schtick. Way Of The Dodo is even worse, a plea to mankind to stop fucking up the planet with a terrible R&B chorus and stumbly rhymes that just don’t hold water.

Never Give In just sounds horribly amateurish, the kind of shit you’d cringe at in a high school talent show. On The Edge Of A Cliff is the story of a guy saved from suicide by the Darwinian observations of a passing stranger, over a terrible 70’s cop drama theme song instrumental. Critics have anointed him ‘too witty and intelligent to be lumped in with the current trend of mediocre chroniclers of suburban life,’ but I’m not buying the transcendental genius line.

Despite the scrubbed-philosophy ‘moment of clarity’ approach, Skinner’s delivery is appealing, and he can lock up a pop hook pretty well. That alone saves this record from being a complete waste of time. But overall, this just doesn’t translate to these fickle American ears.

If you’re looking for sharp wit and social wisdom through a British filter, check out Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip. There’s much more fertile ground to be found than this.

Everything Is Borrowed
September 16, 2008
679 Recordings, Vice Records

01. Everything Is Borrowed
02. Heaven For The Weather
03. I love You More (Than You Like Me)
04. The Way Of The Dodo
05. On The Flip Of A Coin
06. On The Edge Of A Cliff
07. Never Give In
08. The Sherry End
09. Alleged Legends
10. Strongest Person I Know
11. The Escapist