Skip to main content

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



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored.  And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coming Up – Suede

  Year Released: 1996 Label: Nude Year Bought: 2011 I know lots of people love this album, and it has got some great songs on it, but I just can't love it. It's too trebly, too thin, too cold. It kicks off with 'Trash', which is an absolutely brilliant tune with fantastic lyrics. Brett is at his absolute best here, with talk of "nowhere towns" and "cellophane sounds", and being the "litter on the breeze". I love it. But, alas we go from one of Suede's best songs to one of their worst. 'Filmstar' feels incredibly lazy. The riff is nothing, and as for the lyrics:  Filmstar propping up the bar driving in a car it looks so easy Filmstar propping up the bar driving in a car tonight These are Noel Gallagher-on-an-incredibly-bad-day lyrics.  I hate the riff, I hate the chorus, I hate the lyrics. I hate how shiny it is. It's lazy ... which is the title of the next song. This tune sees the first use on the album of the "here the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blur — Blur

Year Released: 1997 Label: Food Year Bought: 2012 AND WHEN SHE LETS ME SLIP AWAY.... The opening track of Blur's fifth album is undoubtedly one of their best. I remember when "Beetlebum" came out that it felt like a gear shift from the band. Later in the same year, Radiohead did the same with 'Paranoid Android'. Oasis's big comeback single in 1997, "D'You Know What I Mean" didn't have the same vibes. Anyway, the self-titled album from Blur sees the band pretty much withdrawing from the Britpop battle. The chopping guitar of "Beetlebum" in many ways tells you everything you need to know about the record. Lo-fi, rough, a bit aggressive, the album sees Graham Coxon's love of US alt-rock, particularly Beck, dominating the sound. Take "You're So Great", a Coxon penned and performed tune that sounds like it was recorded on an old tape player. This is no "Country House". "Country Sad Ballad Man" sounds...
Post a Comment
Read more