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...
Pretty much every day I listen to a record from my collection randomly picked by my daughter before she goes to school. This is to justify still having hundreds of CDs (and a few cassettes and vinyl)