The Streets | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Mike Skinners recordings as the Streets marked the first attempt to add a degree of social commentary to Britains party-hearty garage/2-step (and later grime) movement. Skinner, a Birmingham native who later ventured to the capital, was an outsider in the garage scene, though his initial recordings appeared on Locked On, the premiere source for speed garage and, later, 2-step from 1998 to the end of the millennium. He spent time growing up in North London as well as Birmingham, and listened first to hip-hop, then house and jungle. Skinner made his first tracks at the age of 15, and during the late 90s, tried to start a label and sent off his own tracks while he worked dead-end jobs in fast food. At the end of 2000, he earned his first release when Locked On -- already famous for a succession of burning club tracks from Tuff Jam, the Artful Dodger featuring Craig David, Dem 2, and Doolally -- signed him for the homemade "Has It Come to This?" By the following year, the single hit Britains Top 20 and the inevitable full-length followed in early 2002. That album, Original Pirate Material, unlike most garage compilations and even the bare few production LPs, found a home with widely varying audiences, and correspondingly earned Skinner a bit of enmity from the wider garage community. By the end of the year, it had been released in the States as well, through Vice. After a quiet 2003, Skinner returned with A Grand Dont Come for Free, a concept record that pushed his production and performance eccentricities to a new level, but also resulted in a fresh wave of critical praise. A succession of live dates followed, after which Skinner began recording his third full-length, 2006s The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, which shone a bright light on the vagaries of fame as Skinner had experienced it. Everything Is Borrowed followed in 2008, but charted a far different course, including optimistic and quite philosophical material. Reviews were positive, and it hit the Top Ten in the U.K. Skinner soon began discussing the next Streets record, which he described as dark and futuristic. Released early in 2011, Computers and Blues matched his fiery delivery and songwriting with a banging production approach that harked well back to the Original Pirate Material days. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 6 Title: Original Pirate Material Released: 2002-03-25 Tracks: 14 Duration: 47:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Turn the Page (03:17) 2 Has It Come to This? (04:04) 3 Let’s Push Things Forward (03:53) 4 Sharp Darts (01:35) 5 Same Old Thing (03:24) 6 Geezers Need Excitement (03:47) 7 It’s Too Late (04:12) 8 Too Much Brandy (03:04) 9 Don’t Mug Yourself (02:40) 10 Who Got the Funk? (01:52) 11 The Irony of It All (03:31) 12 Weak Become Heroes (05:35) 13 Who Dares Wins (00:36) 14 Stay Positive (06:16) |
| Original Pirate Material : Allmusic album Review : When Streets tracks first appeared in DJ sets and on garage mix albums circa 2000, they made for an interesting change of pace; instead of hyper-speed ragga chatting or candy-coated divas (or both), listeners heard banging tracks hosted by a strangely conversational bloke with a mock cockney accent and a half-singing, half-rapping delivery. It was Mike Skinner, producer and MC, the half-clued-up, half-clueless voice behind club hits "Has It Come to This?" and "Lets Push Things Forward." Facing an entire full-length of Streets tracks hardly sounded like a pleasant prospect, but Skinners debut, Original Pirate Material, is an excellent listen -- much better than the heavy-handed hype would make you think. Unlike most garage LPs, its certainly not a substitute for a night out; its more a statement on modern-day British youth, complete with all the references to Playstations, Indian takeaway, and copious amounts of cannabis youd expect. Skinner also has a refreshing way of writing songs, not tracks, that immediately distinguishes him from most in the garage scene. True, describing his delivery as rapping would be giving an undeserved compliment (you surely wouldnt hear any American rappers dropping bombs like this line: "I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoint"). Still, nearly every song here succeeds wildly, first place (after the hits) going to "The Irony of It All," on which Skinner and a stereotypical British lout go back and forth "debating" the merits of weed and lager, respectively (Skinners meek, agreeable commentary increasingly, and hilariously, causes "Terry" to go off the edge). The production is also excellent; "Lets Push Things Forward" is all lurching ragga flow, with a one-note organ line and drunken trumpets barely pushing the chorus forward. "Sharp Darts" and "Too Much Brandy" have short, brutal tech lines driving them, and really dont need any more for maximum impact. Though club-phobic listeners may find it difficult placing Skinner as just the latest dot along a line connecting quintessentially British musicians/humorists/social critics Nöel Coward, the Kinks, Ian Dury, the Jam, the Specials, and Happy Mondays, Original Pirate Material is a rare garage album: that is, one with a shelf life beyond six months. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 6 Title: All Got Our Runnins Released: 2003-10-14 Tracks: 8 Duration: 35:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Lets Push Things Forward (The Streets remix) (03:20) 2 The Streets Score (instrumental) (03:48) 3 Give Me My Lighter Back (03:21) 4 All Got Our Runnins (04:20) 5 Dont Mug Yourself (Mr. Figit remix) (02:46) 6 Weak Become Heroes (Ashley Beedles Love Bug vocal) (08:15) 7 Its Come to This (The Streets vs. High Contrast) (05:59) 8 The Streets Score (03:34) |
 | Album: 3 of 6 Title: A Grand Don’t Come for Free Released: 2004-05-10 Tracks: 11 Duration: 50:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 It Was Supposed to Be So Easy (03:55) 2 Could Well Be In (04:23) 3 Not Addicted (03:40) 4 Blinded by the Lights (04:44) 5 Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way (04:36) 6 Get Out of My House (03:52) 7 Fit but You Know It (04:14) 8 Such a Twat (03:47) 9 What Is He Thinking? (04:40) 10 Dry Your Eyes (04:31) 11 Empty Cans (08:14) |
| A Grand Don’t Come for Free : Allmusic album Review : Mike Skinner has a problem, and from the sound of it, its life-threatening. He opens his second Streets full-length by moaning "It was supposed to be so easy..." as though hes about to deliver his deathbed confession, the classic tale of a crime gone wrong. Instead, three minutes later, its clear what the "it" was: walking down to bring back a DVD rental, taking some money out of the machine, and calling his mother, who hed just left at home, to tell her he wouldnt be back for tea. Believe it or not, but thats just another day in the life of Britains favorite bedsit producer cum singer/songwriter. Although listeners may not wonder where he finds his material, theyll quickly realize that A Grand Dont Come for Free is just as immediately striking as Skinners career-making full-length debut, Original Pirate Material. It succeeds, despite a clear lack of comparable singles, because of its paradoxical concept (and yes, it is a concept album) that a record can be tremendously ambitious even though it charts a very unambitious personality. Skinners urban British youth persona is even more fully drawn than before, and this time he delivers a complete narrative in LP form, with characters, conflicts, themes, and post-modern resolution on the closer. Hes sheepish about his utter lack of knowledge about football (and the heavy gambling losses that result from it), unreservedly enthusiastic about his girlfriend early on but later totally disgusted with her (in a blow-up that rivals Dizzee Rascals "I Luv U"), not so easily dismissive of a gorgeous show-off in front of him at the kebab shop, and willing to confront anyone who criticizes him for drinking at home until he can set up a row of empty Tennents Super cans. Fortunately, he hasnt reduced the Streets to a comedy act in the process. There is as much tragedy and heartbreak here as there is slapstick comedy. "Blinded by the Lights," driven at half-speed by a shadowy trance line and Skinners disoriented delivery, transmits perfectly the intense loneliness that can flood you in a club full of people and the utter disenchantment of being stranded in the middle of euphoria. Skinner drives these tracks with a mere skeleton of productions and delivers some cruelly off-key harmonies on the choruses; only the single, a rockabilly buster named "Fit but You Know It," makes any attempt to connect the dots from beats to melody to production. Confronting doubts about his seriousness and squashing whispers about his talent, Skinner has made a sophomore record that expands on what distinguishes the Streets from any other act in music. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 6 Title: The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living Released: 2006-04-10 Tracks: 11 Duration: 37:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Prangin Out (03:50) 2 War of the Sexes (03:27) 3 The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (03:14) 4 All Goes Out the Window (03:33) 5 Memento Mori (02:35) 6 Cant Con an Honest John (03:41) 7 When You Wasnt Famous (03:20) 8 Never Went to Church (03:35) 9 Hotel Expressionism (03:35) 10 Two Nations (03:05) 11 Fake Streets Hats (03:12) |
| The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living : Allmusic album Review : Apparently, success has spoiled Mike Skinner. Its a common problem among artists who are also working-class social critics; if they become successful, its increasingly difficult to go back to the well when everything theyve used for material changes drastically -- friends and lovers, home life, work life and social life. The wallflower who could study his subjects for hours suddenly lacks for good material when hes the center of attention. Instead of attempting the charade of being a working-class chronicle, hes moved on to the types of problems that come with celebrity, including trashed hotel rooms ("I make these crap rap rhythms to pay the hotel bills that fund my passion"), isolation and loneliness ("I got nothing in my life away from the studio"), fake Streets hats ("Fake Streets Hats"), and the other vagaries of fame ("Camera phones -- how the hell am I supposed to be able to do a line in front of complete strangers, when I know theyve all got cameras?"). So, are these Skinners sincere reflections on his surroundings, an artistic statement hes proud of, or are they the result of a parodic persona hes assumed, with its requisite shroud of satire? Parody or not (and Skinner assures us hes sincere), The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living is barely worth hearing, aside from curiosity. Most listeners wont care to follow this particular rabbit down the hole because of the bracing cynicism, paranoia, misanthropy, and betrayal theyll hear at every turn on this record. Humility has been replaced by arrogance, reflection by anger, and humor by sullenness. On "War of the Sexes," he offers crass commentary on love and often delivers it in a brutish, nasal bark (including this classic: "Hammered people dont get to nail!"). Non-Anglo listeners will have no interest in discovering what pranging out means, what Skinner has to say about America ("Two Nations"), or that the fake Streets hats on the eponymous track were actually manufactured by his label. The lead single here, "When You Wasnt Famous," is a step down in quality from "Fit But You Know It," the lead single from A Grand Dont Come for Free, just as that track was a clear step down from the top singles on Original Pirate Material. The production has changed little from the last record -- hard-hitting, synth-based productions with minimalist melodies and tough, clanging percussion, except for the occasional piano-based ballad. Skinners lyrics are striking and distinctive as before, but its difficult to believe this is the same artist who confronted a stereotypical lager lout named Terry on a track from his first album, titled "The Irony of It All." The irony here is that Skinner sounds more like the lout. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 6 Title: Everything Is Borrowed Released: 2008-09-15 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Everything Is Borrowed (04:04) 2 Heaven for the Weather (03:27) 3 I Love You More (Than You Like Me) (03:45) 4 The Way of the Dodo (03:33) 5 On the Flip of a Coin (03:20) 6 On the Edge of a Cliff (03:04) 7 Never Give In (03:25) 8 The Sherry End (02:46) 9 Alleged Legends (03:12) 10 The Strongest Person I Know (03:03) 11 The Escapist (05:15) |
| Everything Is Borrowed : Allmusic album Review : By the end of the last Streets album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, listeners and even most fans were ready for Mike Skinner to stop complaining about the perils of celebrity. Skinner sounded crass and cynical, utterly disgusted with his life and very bitter about what it had become. (In so doing, it proved that hes one of the most honest songwriters to ever step up to a microphone.) Everything Is Borrowed is a neat about-face, a record that couldnt be more different from its predecessor. Sincere, considered, and poignant, Everything Is Borrowed finds Skinner remaining one of the foremost lyricists in pop music, and so much the better when the focus of his sharp writing is the struggle of weighty concepts instead of flimsy celebrity. Skinners characters in these parables are struggling, no doubt, but in the process theyre also coming upon profound insights about life, death, and love, ranging from the slightly pithy ecology dance piece "The Way of the Dodo" all the way up to the struggle between good and evil in each person ("Heaven for the Weather," which reveals its odd title and its lyrical genius in the line "I want to go to heaven for the weather/But hell for the company"). The instrumentation, as well, is far more different than any previous Streets record. Although the drums dont always sound live, most of the time they are, courtesy of drummer Johnny "Drum Machine" Jenkins. Electric guitar and bass occupy a lot of space, along with the occasional strings and even brass. Nevertheless, since the instruments are wielded the same way that the synths were in the past, theres no radical change in format. Skinner still busies himself speaking most of the verses (often tripping over himself) and singing every chorus (usually off-key), as though hes stumbling upon every genius line, daft as they sometimes sound. Hes just as stingy with his productions as he has been ever since the second Streets album, so those who ache for the crystalline production perfection of Original Pirate Material wont find much here to cling to. But singing (or speaking) words of wisdom like this certainly makes up for his gradual move away from the super-producer status hes enjoyed in the past. Suddenly optimistic, or at least philosophical, about life, Skinner catches lightning in the bottle for the third time, and makes it clear that once were able to look back at the Streets discography -- Skinner has promised that this is the fourth of five -- it will be easy to see The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living much more simply, troubled and frustrating though it was, as a way to exorcise some of his darker demons, and make the journey to the light more invigorating. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 6 Title: Computers and Blues Released: 2011-02-04 Tracks: 14 Duration: 43:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Outside Inside (03:01) 2 Going Through Hell (03:08) 3 Roof of Your Car (03:12) 4 Puzzled by People (03:08) 5 Without Thinking (03:17) 6 Blip on a Screen (03:34) 7 Those That Dont Know (02:54) 8 Soldiers (03:36) 9 We Can Never Be Friends (03:36) 10 ABC (01:11) 11 OMG (03:26) 12 Trying to Kill M.E. (03:58) 13 Trust Me (02:16) 14 Lock the Locks (03:07) |
| Computers and Blues : Allmusic album Review : Arguably one of the defining voices of his generation, urban raconteur Mike Skinners early-noughties tales of clubbing, comedowns, and "chav culture" initially saw him hailed as a modern-day Keats. But following the self-indulgent meltdown of 2006s The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living and the "philosophy for beginners" approach of 2008s Everything Is Borrowed, the Brummie mavericks uniquely relatable poetic license appeared to have expired. However, his fifth studio LP, Computers and Blues, his last to be recorded under the guise of the Streets, sees him return to his more popular "everyman" persona again on a concept album that perhaps captures the Zeitgeist just as much as his first two celebrated efforts. Based on the theme of technology and the power it holds over modern life, its 14 tracks showcase Skinners trademark hip-hop witticisms on the likes of the skittering dubstep of "OMG," where Skinner reveals his anxiety over his object of affections Facebook relationship status, the filtered synth-led "Soldiers," which tackles the issue of video game violence overlapping into reality, and the baroque pop of "Roof of Your Car," an amusing story about a group of stoners battle with a sat-nav, while "Blip on a Screen," a heartfelt ode to an ultrasound scan of his unborn daughter, like his signature tune, is unlikely to leave a dry eye in the house. Acknowledging the "leaving party" vibes, Skinner also ropes in a number of high-profile guest collaborators for the first time in his ten-year career, including the Musics Robert Harvey, who belts out his Robert Plant-esque vocals on the leery drunken singalong of lead single "Going Through Hell," his hometowns answer to Kate Bush, Clare Maguire, on the folky final track "Lock the Locks," and Laura Vane & the Vipertones eponymous lead vocalist on the percussion-driven account of his struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, "Trying to Kill M.E." Elsewhere, Skinner attempts to win back the fans hes recently lost with nods to his old-skool clubby beginnings on the two-step garage of "Those That Dont Know," the funky Gallic disco of "Trust Me," and the Italo-house-inspired "Without Thinking," while the Berlin influences hinted at by the stark minimal building on its cover art rear their head on the industrial rhythms of "Puzzled by People" and the sparse futuristic robotics of "Outside Inside." As resignation letters go, Computers and Blues will be tough to beat. | ||