Albums
< The Streets
Everything Is Borrowed
words by Mandy Drake
Last time we saw Mike Skinner he was fresh from pranging out, fucking anonymous pop stars who smoke crack, battling a gambling addiction, fighting for the survival of his Beats label and being twatted by his manager. That was The Streets’ ‘breakdown album’, ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’. Gak free and clean from songstress -knobbing, barnies with his own team and endless trips to the bookies, ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ is a far more optimistic, spiritual view of the state of things. Yeah, The Beats was buried last year (literally – Skinner held a funeral service in a shed for his defunct record empire) but while a grand still don’t come for free, Mike Skinner seems to be realising that perhaps there is value in those rewards that do; the clue being in the everything-is-borrowed-not-owned-and-up-for-grabs-if -your-fist-can-clench-tight-enough title. Well, almost everything.
“I came to this world with nothing, and I’ll leave with nothing but love, everything else is just borrowed,” speak/sings a female-accompanied Skinner-gone-soft in his usual ‘Birmingdon’ accent on the opening title track. So it’s all looking a little ‘Dry Or Eyes’ from the off. But the organ that loops over and over forgives the inevitable as Skinner matures, less bothered about drug-bragging on his latest.
Daft as it is, the novel ‘Heaven For The Weather’ – with it’s Sesame Street melody that could see Elmo singing lead to Big Bird on, as the yellow buzzard curls Snuffleupagus’ eyelashes – manages to not lose the ground made so far. And the smoky 1930s, jazz piano of ‘I Love You More (Than You Like Me)’ certainly doesn’t. But with the arrival of the following ‘The Way Of The Dodo’ comes too the worst Streets track recorded to date. Skinner raps the fastest we’ve heard him, but who cares when the theme is global warming and our extinction? It’s not even the righteousness that makes it so unbearably annoying, but rather the patronising hook, not suitable for a bit of Newsround teachings.
The story-telling ‘On The Flip Of A Coin’ can be taken or left, before the gospel ‘On The Edge Of A Cliff’ proves to us just how over-the-dark-days Skinner is. Talking of savour from suicide by a passer-by’s humble words, its clopping, wood block beat leads into a chorus of high emotion and clarity. Whatever you determine as ‘borrowed’, life is a precious gift, is the clear message of The Streets at their most upbeat.
And they (yes, they) say that happiness doesn’t make for good music, only despair, angst and countless other negatives. But maybe they were fresh from spinning The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’, back to back with Wings ‘Silly Little Love Songs’. Because ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ was an ordeal to make and it showed. Now, in a better frame of mind, ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ is certainly no ‘Original Pirate Material’ but it is a step back in the right direction. There’s no ‘Sharp Darts’ here but there’s never going to be now that Mike Skinner is far more than a snotty-nosed chancer.
And is true Streets style – once the bombastic ‘The Sherry Ends’ briefly visits Skinner’s past, via it’s boozy, partying – ‘Everything Borrowed’ ends with a track so epic that any quibbles we have with what precedes it are dismissed as poor judgement on our part. ‘The Escapist’ is sad, life-questioning and features a tear jerking sing-a-long of ‘Cry Your Eyes’ proportions.
7/10 in stores Sept 8
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