Best from the UK, right now!

[theflaco]

Look for this people!
IMHO the best from UK in long time!!

The Streets
"Original Pirate Material"

It appears that many of those who have faced the challenge of reviewing this album are in agreement that word count is a real bind. There is just too much to say. In fact, a small book could, and probably will, be written examining what The Streets has achieved with the execution of Original Pirate Material.

It could be argued that not since Never Mind The Bollocks... has there been a record that has said as much about being young and living in the UK. Moreover, what makes this album even more remarkable is that it is the work of a one unassuming 22 year old, namely Mike Skinner.

Despite an early passion for hip hop and house Mike was never embroiled in the London's pirate radio scene, in fact he was working in Australia when the UK garage cemented its position in the mainstream. Perhaps it is this cultural and geographical distance that has kept Skinner's musical slate clean and allowed him to forge this unique 'high rise' style. Ska, dub, house, drum and bass, hip hop and UK garage have all been thrown in to The Streets' sampler for processing and rearrangement. When combined with his vocal delivery the results are mesmerising - not quite hip hop, not quite an MC and not quite slam poetry but somewhere in between. He's engaged, enlightened and writes with a degree of insight that is humorous, heart-wrenching, humbling and worthy of so much more than this little review.

By his own admission Original Pirate Material is the "day in the life of a geezer" yet amongst the bitter sweet, inner city anecdotes of drugs, violence, playing computer games, trips to the garage and going clubbing, Mike's best punches are pulled when he is at his most sensitive. In "Weak Become Heroes" he muses "It's easy, no one blames you, it's that world out there that's f*cked! … you're no less of a person and if God exists he still loves you, just remember that". In "Has It Come To This" he announces, "The music's a gift from the man on high, the lord and his children". More of these gems are revealed with successive listens and it is clear as the title in "Let's Push Things Forward" suggests Mike is on a mission.

In the years to come if you're ever asked what it was like being young at the start of the twenty first century you could do a lot worse than dig this album out of your collection provided, of course, you've taken it out of your CD player. Genius.

Reviewer: Andy Puleston

theflaco

[JackUzi]

Yup, its a really good album. It's like a cross between hip hop and slowed down garage beats and some rough n' ready production. The whole thing (apart from a few tracks) sounds like its been broadcast from a pirate raio station. The lyrics are brilliant, y'know normal stuff that you can relate to and pretty damn funny too esp. "Too much brandy" and the drunk v. stoner skit "The irony of it all". It sounds like nothing around at the moment and even if some of the beats sound clumsy or iffy they kinda underline the clumsy and mundane elements of Mike Skinner's life.

[LV15]

well personally i would like to say that this album is a big bag of shit...sure its original, sure it sounds like nothing we've ever heard before...thats probably because no-ones been stupid enough to release crap like this.

This album should be called 'the emperors new clothes'...everyone is falling over themselves to declare this a masterpiece...and it seems like no-one wants to be the one who says 'hey wait a minute....it's bollocks'

so...'hey..this album is bollocks'

i'm sure that A&R people have been getting shite like this sent to them for the past 10 years...why someone has finally been stupid enough to release it i'll never know. He's now being toted as some kind of spokesman for my generation....well as morrisey once said

'hang the blessed DJ, because the music he constantly plays...says nothing to me about my life'

it's not witty, it's not clever, it's not ironic, it's not post modernism lad culture, it's not the bard of the E generation...it's a brummy twat who can't make proper dance music (as is apparant by the god awful tunes he rhymes over) who is not even a particularly good MC (or should i call him a poet?) he's probably sat at home with his mates pissing himself how everyone is queuing up to masterbate over him