And now for something completely...inexcusable.
Once upon a time, Mike Skinner (aka The Streets) made an innovative, groundbreaking and intelligent record called Original Pirate Material. His clever use of hip-hop and techno beats coupled with witty lyrical observations led some commentators to dub him the 21st century poet laureate. And then he got famous, which in turn bred complacency, and so now, four years on from OPM, this is what he's churning out today.
Y'see, whereas before he was writing about the irony of morons abusing students, now those once lambasted people make up 99 per cent of his target audience, which means that songs - if you can call it that - like 'When You Wasn't Famous', whose title doesn't even make sense as far as the English language is concerned, sound like a mere pastiche of what he seemingly set out to achieve back in the halcyon days of 2002. It sounds like a bad version of Blur circa 'Park Life', with added calypso music thrown in for the forthcoming package holiday market.
Once again, its theme is about pulling girls (haven't you been there already, Mr Skinner?), only this time the central character is apparently some squeaky clean popstrel who "smokes too much prang". Not that we remotely care.
The real irony of it all is that this is the same Mike Skinner who once talked about pushing things forward...
hey come on be fair!
He's had a rough old time. He addicted to gambling, he's, like, all famous and stuff, and he's had a breakdown.
oh who am I kidding.
Have you ever noticed that when celebrities have a few rough months it's always described as a breakdown. Why can't normal people have this? We're just told to cheer up and that things will improve, which they normally do. And you're never drinking too much, you're addicted and need to go to rehab.
Maybe it is shit being famous. If he keeps releasing songs like this he won't have to worry too much longer.
Spot on review
Worst song that I've heard in a LONG time.
Hey Macarena!
Hoi!
I don't feel that needs justification, just listen again.
i thought....
the "more content" to the right of this piece read:
Frank Skinner and Robert Smith triumph at the Ivors
Now that would've been a story....
I'd pay to hear
a Skinner/Smith collaboration!
amazing review
Too true about everything
completely correct
it's a shame he used to be good.
back in the ol days
mind you talking of the old days, bbc7 is repeating lee and herrings Fist of Fun.
GET IN!
to be honest
i've always found him hit and miss. but he's obviously, clearly capable of making great songs, and this isn't one of them.
pffffff
bad review , its got it all wrong . read the pitchfork review instead . great song , album tracks are even better , give it time .... j
what pitchfork review?
there isn't one, of this.
this one, i'd expect
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/tracks/06-02-16.shtml
aaah
I could not find it earlier.
ta.
Its theme isn't just about pulling girls.
If you bothered to listen to the words either side of the chorus you'd realise that pulling girls is just the backrop to its main theme which is the seedy/fucked-up world of modern celebrity/pop star culture.
As for the laughable comment about 'calypso music', I'm guessing you ain't out partying with the baile funkers at weekends.
The real irony of it all is that Mike Skinner is a million times less complacent than this review is.
What on earth
is a "baile funker"?
The Streets are an embarrassing, burberry wearing joke that is three years past its sell by date and mostly only appeals to 13 year olds who hang about on street corners wearing tracksuits purchased from TK Maxx and speaking in fake Yardie accents.
'Blinded By The Lights' excepted, Skinner hasn't made a half decent record since 'Original Pirate Material' and is living off the fact that papers like The Sun seem to worship his every move - probably because he appeals to their readership - and therefore churning out half-arsed cack like this record.
As for listening to it once. I wish! Unfortunately it seems to be clogging up every radio station and Music TV channel at the minute. Thankfully even a fair percentage of his fanbase don't seem to rate it either if its midweek chart placing is anything to go by.
^^^^Bollocks^^^
To be fair, Skinner has never courted fame nor the tabloid press. He's got himself famous by being a popular musician. That's not his fault - and he's always ridiculed the chavs you allude to.
Also, what do you want him to sing about? It'd be rich for him to still be talking about the stuff he was on OPM, when he's not just another nobody now.
Granted this is probably only a 6/10 single, but its because he's become a victim of his own success. He's nailed what he does, then did a concept album, and he can't really do that again so we get this... what do you want him to do? I bet he's probably a bit fed up himself.
What do I want him to do?
Retire, perhaps, is one option.
What on earth is a "baile funker"?
Someone who likes baile funk. The clues are there if you look hard enough.
As for the bigoted shite about kids who wear tracksuits from TK Maxx, it beggars belief that someone who claims to like The Clash and The Specials could hold such pig-ignorant views. Frankly, it makes me feel dirty just reading 'em.
Clearly Mike Skinner's music reflects a culture you fundamentally despise, so it's hardly surprising you don't like this track. I'm sure Mike's gutted.
The Specials and The Clash
did not write about package holiday romances such as 'Fit But You Know It'. The Specials and The Clash actually wrote about subjects such as racial equality and political instability during an era when such subjects weren't merely touche, they were things that were quite unspeakable.
To mention The Specials and The Clash in the same chapter, let alone sentence as Mike Skinner and The Streets is nothing but insulting and downright derogatory to two of the most genuine, hardworking and groundbreaking British artists ever.
Its 30 years since The Clash and not too many years off that since The Specials began and you can still quite clearly hear their legacy in many of today's most respected artists.
Somehow, I very much doubt we'll be saying the same things about Mike Skinner in 2030.
The Clash also wrote about
not wanting to wear a rubber johnny.
I'm more concerned about how someone who claims to like The Clash can hold such bigoted views. Surely that goes against everything Joe Strummer believed in.
Not liking The Streets
because they are not very good any more is hardly a bigoted view, is it?
No, but despising a culture
you can't even begin to understand is.
What's your opinion about Lady Sovereign, out of interest?
To be honest
Glory, I've not heard much of her stuff. Certainly not enough to have formed an opinion anyway, although what I have heard doesn't really do much for me.
Unlike The Streets, who are on album number three, and getting progressively worse with each one...
the specials
while ace, also put on record some pretty dubious and near-misogynistic views about women.
"when you wasn't famous" is shit, there's little doubt, but dom's tiresome and myopic comments on "chavs" have been aired here before and don't do him any favours either.
crikey
i've just taken The_Glory's side in an argument...
...colon ess?
The Sun
I Recently moved down to Camberwell from Hampstead. Mostly Sun-readers around these parts, probably avidly watching Peter and Jordan on telly, and you know what...it's so much more <b>alive</b> than where I was before. People might actually talk to each other in the street. Go back to Guardian-reading Hampstead and it feels like the world is populated by stiffs.
This is England. You can't pick and choose. So now everyone wants to be middle class, but what IS so good about that? You've still got to struggle to get by, only you've lost the cheer and sense of humour that 'working class' people bring to work, and even when you are comfortably off, you're perpetually shitting yourself about domestic and financial security. Look down on the rich people because you think they haven't earned it the hard way, and look down on the poor people because that's the only way to make yourself feel better about the fact that you're never going to be rich.
I was born and bred middle class, son of a teacher. It's rubbish. I don't know who the f**k I am most of the time. Those maligned tracksuited 13 year olds... well at least their 'enemies' are visibly and overtly so. In our lovely middle class world we would all, apparently, stab each other in the back in the pursuit of mammon, all the time with a smile on our faces.
I could relate to OPM because it was as much a testament to the world of slackers as it was an anthem for council estates. He's not writing songs for slackers any more, because he isn't one. 'Dry Your Eyes' was superb. Songs like this...you know what...it's not meant to be some deep catharsis or mind-bending social comment. It's meant to be <b>fun</b>, which for some reason is one thing that we have difficulty appreciating.
That's all fair enough
...but it's not that people have a difficulty accepting "fun" songs. "Fit But You Know It" was a good fun song as are, for example, Girls Alouds' "Love Machine", Outkast's "Hey Ya" and Mary J Blige's "Family Affair".
This isn't. I don't mind that it's no great social commentary but the assumption that, because something's supposed to be fun means that it doesn't have to be good is completely inaccurate and vaguely patronising.
Admittedly it's not his best
but it's still a damn sight better than a lot of stuff out there right now.
I would say it's more a solid 6 or 7, than a 2.
All got our dissins
He's done better, but then the first singles from the last two albums weren't the best he could do. I'm off the wagon of Streets-slating till I hear the album. Only sticking to Kalibre in the meanwhile :)
Did the person that wrote this review only listen to it the once?
well y'know
I've loved The Streets since I first heard Has It Come To This. I think this songs pretty good (7/10), but nowhere near his best. Usually its pretty easy to relate to his songs, but well, its obvious the context of his songs would change after the number 1 albums and singles. The reviewers right about him not pushing things forward, however, the fact that he did push things forward so fucking much with OPM would always leave him with a mountain to climb in that respect.
I'd pay to hear
a Streets/OPM collaboration
Think hard. Are you sure he was ever good?
In the furure everyone who ever said they liked the Streets will deny it. Trust me.
Yes...
He was.
Hmmmm. review a bit suspect.
Yes, he's more successful; and yes this song isn't one of his better or more original efforts.
But it's still a likeable little tune, light and breezy daytime radio filler.
There's better stuff on the album, and this is still going to be a hit. I wouldn't write him off just yet.
This track....
....sucks. "This track isn't his best" seems a bit of a euphemism.
I do love The Streets though, but this song is crap. Annoying beat, annoying chorus. If the chorus didn't come up so often, it would be more tolerable. Dude shouldn't sing. Evar.
But yes, The Streets is talented. His style doesn't have to really change much since his viewpoint always seems to change as his situation changes. Actually, his style HAS changed......but right now it sits comfortably between OPM and A Grand Don't.
The album has a few dud tracks, but at least he didn't forget how to put together a proper high-tempo beat, because A Grand Don't lacked that.
And Turn The Page = his best. Who Dare Wins is a close 2nd, but at 34 seconds, is it really a song?
true
but not yet
well
i rather like this song, but i don't know why. it's not one of his best though, but compared to most of the crap on the radio its amazing.
its all right
when i first heard it I thought it was pretty annoying as well, but when you hear it along with the rest of the album it makes more sense.
It was probably a bad choice for first single though because it seems to have annoyed a few people.
I do want to know what popstar it was...
I'm not normally one for celebrity fixation either...
"Also famous too"
for fuck's sake...
but
surely the bottom line must be that his beats/production suck. You can mean every word you say but if the music is as uninspired and clunky as this single its gunna sound like half-arsed tat. Which it does.
the review is absolutely correct.
Original Pirate Material was fresh as fuck when it came out although even that did have some moments of tastelessness. I couldn't listen to the contrived, cliched piece of shit that was the second album and this is diabolical.
It's hilarious to see the glory has also latched on The Streets just as they've got shit! Seems he likes defending artists who are past their prime, perhaps he is a masochist?
Fairplay
This is absolute wank.
I agree
At first I was confused about whether to like this or not.
But I came to the conclusion that it's a load of attention seeking, tacky shite.
the clash
are overrated.
The streets
havent made
Original Pirate Material
is the only stuff i enjoy by the streets, and i mean really enjoy. A grand dont come for free was and is awful. Original Pirate Material was original, and the rest is just an attempt to be half as good.
y'know
I liked 'A grand dont come for free', its one of those albums which I put on and listen through from track 1 to the end. The lyrics aren't as good as Original Pirate Material, but neither is there anything as awful as 'Who Got The Funk' which I skip every single time
Skinner dipping
I loved the first two albums, but I've listened to the The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living four times now, and I'm pretty much done with it. The beats are as good as ever in places, but the lyrics just don't hold the interest. Two or three lively additions to the gig-set, but that's it. I love When You Wasn't Famous and the opener Pranging Out, but most of the others are repetitive subject-wise, and there's too much kiddie wordplay and swearing where genuine cleverness used to be. In one way, I'm glad he's got the being-famous-is-rubbish album out of the way. But he'll have some job to get back on track for the next one. It's clear on Hardest Way that it's not only his finances and health that's shot to bits, but his value system. Where once he was giving his middle finger to the Criminal Justice Act, he's now only lifting a hand to smash up hotel rooms and drive a Ferrari drunk, subjects that are mildly amusing at first, but not something I want to hear over and over (and I did try). In fact, it's was a bit of a surprise to me that he actually thinks drugged-up messing about is interesting enough to sustain a whole album. There's also a silly song about how to pull off a con-job that had me thinking, 'Thanks and all, but I don't want to pull off a con-job'. Ultimately, I think he needs to take his face up off the mirror and look around at what's going on in the world. He should also consider writing about characters other than himself, something I think he'd be great at. Otherwise, it's a case of ever-decreasing circles. I think we know all we need to know - and then some - about the life of Mike Skinner.