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The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living - The Streets



Released: 2006

Label: Locked On

When I Bought: 2006

When the lead single from The Streets' third album was released, it suggested Mike Skinner was about to shine a light into the dark cave of mid 00s celebrity culture and show us all the worms and rats wriggling and scurrying just out of view.

The track detailed his dalliance with a crack-smoking pop star who managed to keep it nice and clean for her CD:UK appearances.

The tale was couched in the typical Skinner everyman sensibilities, letting us know that yes, when you're a famous boy, it gets really easy to get girls.

But we can still identify with him as "when you try to pull a girl who is also famous too, it feels just like when you wasn't famous."

When the album was released, I looked forward to hearing more tales from the darkness, but actually, the pervading theme of the album is that Skinner was lost in the cave with no light to guide him,

'Prangin Out' is a brilliant opening track. Paranoid, nasty, scratchy – a cocaine comedown committed to record. "This time now I'm drying my eyes and a fucking nosebleed," Skinner admits, over shifting beats and a looped keyboard. The self-hating dialogue being muttered in the background only increases the dread.

Much of the album deals with Skinner struggling with his fame - and struggling with not having to struggle, in some ways. 

His previous record, with the chart-topping 'Dry Your Eyes' made him a wealthy man, and 'Memento Mori' catalogues him spending his cash on cars and clothes. "I think if I could see me now from my growing past, I'd hate the shirted cunt that seems to be so fucking flash," he admits. 

The title track also deals with the realities of being a pop star, as does 'Hotel Expressionism' and 'Two Nations', although neither are particularly good tunes. Indeed, some of this really does sound phoned in.

Aside from the 'fame is hell/boring/fun/druggy' tracks, Skinner throws in a couple of emotionally led songs.

'All Goes Out The Window' is a great slice of RnB about infidelity and is up there with his best work. It's one of the best sounding tracks on the album, with some great vocals from collaborator Leo the Lion.

'Never Went To Church' has painfully honest lyrics about the loss of Skinner's father, delivered over the chords of 'Let It Be'. When I listened to this when it came out in 2006, I dismissed the track as just a by-numbers attempt to recreate the emotional impact of 'Dry Your Eyes', but 18 years on, and having seen more of life, I find it a more moving piece of music. So it goes. 

Of the first three Streets albums, this is the weakest. Yes, there are some good tracks - 'Prangin' Out', 'All Goes Out The Window', 'When You Wasn't Famous', 'Never Went To Church' - but there's also some real misfires. 'War of the Sexes' and 'Can't Con An Honest John' almost turn Skinner into a novelty act, and album closer 'Fake Streets Hats' is better as an anecdote than a song.

Ultimately, comedowns aren't fun.

6/10



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