The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free

[Frinky]

Are you european son the second?

[Big Jack McBastard]

The Streets? Music?

Que?

Sorry you've lost me now.

<shakes his head in mild disappointment>

[Timmay]

Fantastic fantastic fantastic. Great album. Not sure yet if I like it more than Original Pirate Material, but it's gonna be damn close.

Incidentally, I've just worked out how to share stuff using Bittorrent, and this album is my first guinea pig to see if it works. I think the torrent is LINK REMOVED, please try it and let me know!

[weekender]

I'm still listening to the album overall, but I think that the last two tracks - 'Dry Your Eyes' and 'Empty Cans' if the version I've downloaded is correct - are lovely.

Seems to be more filler on this album than on 'Original Pirate Material' is my first opinion.

[no_offenc]

lovely

Weekender?  Are you okay?

Quick nurse, the medication.....

[gazzyk1ns]

Something you might want to hear -

The Streets - Weak Become Heroes (Royksopp's Memory Lane Dub)

Not "fantastic" or anything, but if you're in the mood then it's very good. Cheers to Weekender for the webspace...

[fanny splendid]

Incidentally, I've just worked out how to share stuff using Bittorrent, and this album is my first guinea pig to see if it works. I think the torrent is LINK REMOVED, please try it and let me know!

Yes, Timmay, it's working for me.

[Timmay]

Wicked. Ta Fanny.

[weekender]

lovely

Weekender?  Are you okay?

Quick nurse, the medication.....

It was either a full moon and my schizophrenia was playing up, or I generally try and be polite and nice in all these other forums.  Or I was pissed.

Anyway, the Streets album.  It's still growing, but 'Get Out Of My House' is really starting to annoy me.  'Such A Twat' is starting to get skipped as well - a funny title, but the tune does nothing for me.

I love 'Dry Your Eyes' though, I think that's a beautiful song.

If it was a vinyl album, I'd probably play side 1 quite a lot, and just play the last two tracks on side 2.

[no_offenc]

I think I'll buy the CD when I can get round to having money.  Might re-rip my copy of OPM as well, because the original set of mp3s I ripped are pretty bumf.

[morgs]

I'll buy it.  First album surprised me when I started to really get into it.  For me 'Geezers need excitement' IS Margate on a Friday/Saturday night.

Just hope the new one lives up to it

[Jet Set Willy]

I'm really loving "It was Supposed ot be so Easy" right now.

In parts of it he reminds me of Neil from the Young Ones!

[Mr Manson]

I can't stop listening to it... Dry Your Eyes and Blinded By The Lights are awesome, as is the double version of Empty Cans

[Timmay]

It's still growing, but 'Get Out Of My House' is really starting to annoy me.

Tell me about it. If she was my bird, she can fuck right off with her whinging. Fine, have your fucking keys back you stupid bint!

I just started typing my playlist from the album, and realised I've got em all on there, except It Was Supposed To Be So Easy, and Get Out Of My House. Favourites though; Could Well Be In, Blinded By The Lights, and Dry Your Eyes. Wonderful.

[TJ]

Hmm... heard this in full now, and I *still* don't understand what all the fuss is about. Nothing new or inventive in any respect. Good, yes, listenable, yes, vaguely amusing, yes... but hardly the shock to the system that everyone seems to be making the music out to be. It's merely adequate when it *should* be phenomenal. Mike Skinner sounds as though he could write another 'Bug Powder Dust' if he put the effort in, so why doesn't he do that instead of faffing about with all those lazy kebab references?

"'Ello!
I'm a fellow!
I smoke weed and it makes me mellow
Nick a sample from 'Indian Vibes: Yellow'
Over a drum machine I shout and bellow
Remember Tiswas, eh? The Flan Flinger and Smello
I'm not American, I don't say 'jello'..."

Meanwhile, I'm currently listening to the new Weird War album for the eighteenth time since Sunday.

[Jet Set Willy]

I listened to a proper version on a proper hi-fi last night, and there are a few more songs that I really like now.

There's still a couple I don't like and some pretty laughable moments (that's a bad thing) even in otherwise good songs.

The one about gambling is fukcing awful.

[morgs]

I'm still making my mind up - some good stuff, but it hasn't grabbed me like the first yet.  Having said that I bought the Keane CD at the same time and I am still playing this one, so it must be having some effect.  Sadly I love all the references to loss of signal on the mobile - I am always trying to go to the front of my local to check for a signal!

[Jed Maxwell]

I really don't get the acclaim for the streets. It always seems that music journo & critics have elevated the Streets' lack of ability and poor production as a raw, deconstructed and intentional style.

Doesn't anyone else think he is in fact a unaccomplished talentless chav cretin who has somehow bluffed his way into recognition? When I heard 'Fit but you know' I was remined of the rhyming / musical ability of a 13 year old bedroom garage-wanabee. Now is this intentional irony or just infact what Skinner is???

Think 'Pecker'  generated by our uber ironic, head-up-arse music press and I think you have one very rich, lucky scrote.

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

Doesn't anyone else think he is in fact a unaccomplished talentless chav cretin who has somehow bluffed his way into recognition?

Yeah, but isn't that reaction just as "head-up-arse" as the music critics who champion Skinner? I mean, calling him a "talentless chav cretin" is a bit ignorant, as he's quite obviously got a bit of musical talent (if two hit albums and numerous singles are anything to go by). I'm not his biggest fan, I love some of Skinner's stuff, dislike some more of it (haven't heard the new album either), but it's clear the boy's got something to say, and at least he's found an interesting way of saying it.

[chand]

Doesn't anyone else think he is in fact a unaccomplished talentless chav cretin who has somehow bluffed his way into recognition? When I heard 'Fit but you know' I was remined of the rhyming / musical ability of a 13 year old bedroom garage-wanabee. Now is this intentional irony or just infact what Skinner is???

That's part of the problem for me. Some people think he's being ironic, some people like me think he genuinely is just going on and on about kebabs and trying to shag birds. At least you know where you stand with MC Paul Barman or Pitman or Goldie Lookin' Chain.

I was really disappointed with 'Dry Your Eyes', after everyone said it was great. Perhaps because of that actually, it seemed a bit limp.

The Streets: I officially don't get it.

[Jed Maxwell]

[
he's quite obviously got a bit of musical talent (if two hit albums and numerous singles are anything to go by).

But has he? anything he produced musically on OPM can be done basic software.
Likewise do you honestly think his lyrics contain any other levels than slightly above avarage chav mumblings?

Afraid I officially don't get it either.
I'm an old, old man.................

[Utter Shit]

[
he's quite obviously got a bit of musical talent (if two hit albums and numerous singles are anything to go by).

But has he?

Yes.

anything he produced musically on OPM can be done basic software.

Yes, everything he's made can be made with basic software, but that doesn't mean that anyone can make it. 'Generic But Brilliant Violin Concerto #43' can be played on a violin, but that doesn't mean that anyone can do it. It's the skills (and where production is concerned, the ideas) of the creator that make the music - not the software.

Likewise do you honestly think his lyrics contain any other levels than slightly above avarage chav mumblings?

Again, yes. As with the music, the lyrics are basic, but they're still great. You don't need complicated technology and a huge vocabulary to make good music. This might sound pretentious, but I think part of the beauty of The Streets is it's simplicity...there's nothing complicated about it, in fact it's innately UNcomplicated, but it works.

Harumph!

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

That's part of the problem for me. Some people think he's being ironic, some people like me think he genuinely is just going on and on about kebabs and trying to shag birds. At least you know where you stand with MC Paul Barman or Pitman or Goldie Lookin' Chain.

All Skinner's doing is writing about a lifestyle that he can identify with. For most young English fellas, life is very much about kebabs and trying to shag birds.

[mayer]

ok, i've given the LP lots more whirls now (and i will pop out and buy it when i've got some spare cash), and i like it a lot...

but it's definitely not as good as OPM. its top moments (Blinded By The Lights) are some of the best things i've ever heard, but it aint as good as the first LP for two reasons;

one. not as many "fuck me this is fucking brilliant" songs (OPM had Turn The Page, It's Too Late, Has It Come To This, Let's Push Things Forward and of course Weak Become Heroes)

two. too much filler. i don't really like Not Addicted, Get Out Of My House, Such A Twat and What Is He Thinking... they drag the rest of the LP down for me.

still will be in my 2004 Top Five for sure though.

[Borboski]

I think it's rubbish.

Like Eminem, I tend to think that a huge part of the attraction is that it's hip-hop/rap music that white middle class people can listen to on the grounds that it's, like, culturally important dude, because its oh so clever (wink wink), he's interpreting the medium from the inside (wink wink).

I don't think it's clever, it's just a bably written narrative, with some jaunty cheeky lyrics.

I think when you get to stage where people are saying "ah yes, the cadence of the yes yes oh yay line, it sounds shit, but its supposed to - see what he's doing there? Aren't we clever members of the young liberal elite for recognising it?"

When I say its rubbish, I can see that it's a bit of fun, fairly listenable, but it remains entirely disposable. I can't see anything new or inventive, and doubt many will talk of him in even five years time. Maybe I'm expecting too much.

[Utter Shit]

I think it's rubbish.

Like Eminem, I tend to think that a huge part of the attraction is that it's hip-hop/rap music that white middle class people can listen to on the grounds that it's, like, culturally important dude, because its oh so clever (wink wink), he's interpreting the medium from the inside (wink wink).

With regards to Eminem, no way. I accept that the immediate impact Eminem has is at least partly related to the fact that as a white person, white people think they can identify with him, but after that initial perception, what draws you in is the fact that he's just a supremely gifted lyricist. The Slim Shady LP is up there with the very best hip-hop albums ever made...not quite on the level of Illmatic, Ready To Die or The Low End Theory, but not far off. I think that Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels put it best, when he said (paraphrased) "Doesn't matter whether he's white or black - fact is, this kid can rap".

I don't really understand where you're coming from saying that there's nothing new or inventive - I don't know of any person or group doing anything even similar to The Streets.

Also, that 'Yes, yes, oh yay' line is just shit. I don't think it was deliberate, because in that context, it would be even more stupid, there's no justification for saying that it was deliberately stupid.

[Borboski]

My real problem is that I have no appreciation of hip-hop at all. I listen to a lot of electronica, so its not beats that are the problem, and I like the use of vocals in a  non-singing context (the books for example), I've just never come across any hip-hop that I would class as, well, any good.

I was just having an exchange with a pal, who said, can't you at least appreciate some of the rhyming. Him;

Will you at least accept that some of the rhyme is impressive/creative?

Me;

That's just it. In all the music I like, there's none, apart from some of the more fey stuff, where I've been impressed by rhyming. And I haven't been 'impressed', just sometimes raised a smile - there's a nick cave song, rock of gibralter, that rhymes, alter, altar, halter, malta, and of course gilbralta.

So can you recommend any hip-hop, bearing in mind I find eminem god awful, little better than a little boy saying rude words, that I might like? Preferably something musically inventive and lyrically intelligent? Something I bit like John Hegley set to music, I'd like that.

[dan dirty ape]

I think it's rubbish.

Like Eminem, I tend to think that a huge part of the attraction is that it's hip-hop/rap music that white middle class people can listen to on the grounds that it's, like, culturally important dude, because its oh so clever (wink wink), he's interpreting the medium from the inside (wink wink).

Iquote]

I don't think there's any 'wink wink' to what Skinner does at all. And I don't understand what you mean by 'interpreting the medium from the inside'. He's (ahem) 'keeping it real' in the sense that what he raps about is what he does. He raps about gambling because he gambles, raps about getting mashed and making a tit of himself because he's gotten mashed and made a tit of himself, raps about spending all his time with a new girlfriiend at the expense of doing anything else because he's done that. It's definitely a case of 'write what you know', and in my opinion he does it very well.

[dan dirty ape]

So can you recommend any hip-hop, bearing in mind I find eminem god awful, little better than a little boy saying rude words, that I might like? Preferably something musically inventive and lyrically intelligent? Something I bit like John Hegley set to music, I'd like that.

Sage Francis!

[Borboski]

Is that it?

I shall check Sage Francis out, but I was hoping when I got home they'd be a load more recs.

Come on whores, or I'll start a thread, you try and stop me!