Original Pirate Material [ENHANCED] [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

Turn the Page: apocalyptic, his statement of intent. A+
Has it Come to This?: devastating description of his surroundings. A banging track. A+
Let's Push Thing's Forward: a call of arms for originality to slay "pop formulas". Ska-influenced. A
Sharp Darts: a little bragadoccio. B
Same Old Thing: bangs like a couple of prom night. A
Geezers Need Excitment: a strange beat, great story of hoping to see fights in bars. A-
It's Too Late: a love lament, inspired. A
Too Much Brandy: been drinking again? A-
Don't Mug Yourself: no, that girl doesn't like you, stop being so whipped. A
Who Got the Funk?: "Just a groove" B
The Irony of it All: the aforementioned "fight" between Terry the drunk and Tim the pothead. Funny, yet sharp. A
Weak Become Heroes: the absolute best lyric about the drug culture, set to a dying beat. A+
Who Dares Wins: good title, but only 30 seconds long. B
Stay Positive: the second best lyric, encouraging a friend struggling with a heroin addiction. Jaw-dropping finale. A+

Tell me some duschbag like Fabolous or Ludacris or any of those dime-a-dozen rappers could craft something so insightful. In terms of capturing a particular moment in a generation, the Streets' album does it the best. A supreme achievement.

Well, calling it a hip-hop record is a little disengenuous. The vocal stylings of this one-man show (UK layabout Mike Skinner) come off like rap, but the vocal rhythm is all over the place and it ends up coming off like spoken word more than rap. Thing is, the second you think he's going in one direction, it flips into others and we're left with a record that almost defies every category but trip-hop comfortably. Even the beats are all over the place in context: dance, hip-hop, drum-n-bass...the kid's got a mad record collection at home.

It's catchy stuff, with sung choruses and VERY funny stories if you can decipher the UK dialect ("roight? Sod off, blud'y bastard!"). He's got smart, great takes on the music industry ("Let's Push Things Forward"), the legalization of weed, youth rebellion and Playstation, especially on a super-witty self-duet entitled "The Irony of it All" about how off it is that alcohol is legal and weed isn't, especially in light of the (here) frequently comicly violent outcome of alcholics when weighed against the puff-puff-live philosophies of your average weedhead. This track is a instant classic.

The beats are almost straight old school, but fresh, bootleg-like takes on the genre. "Sharp Darts" and "Geezers Need Excitement" could just as easily have ended up on a dozen hip-hop records that came out last week. The more dance-oriented fare even manages to keep the attention of the electronic illiterate on tracks like "Has It Come To This?"
One of the most winning tracks on here, one so witty it bears pointing out single-handedly, is the extremly fun "Don't Mug Yourself", which is about a guy getting all bent up over a girl while his boys dog him out for being soft. Hilarious, and real. Oy!

The cool thing about this record is that it isn't about being the best rapper or having the most vast and overwrought production, it's about being oneself...something The Streets does with not only grace, but a sharp eye for what wins hearts.