The Streets
Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
Locked On/Warner


Mike Skinner's having a moment on stage in final track Fake Streets Hats, and everything has caught up with our (drunker than usual) hero. It's the moment that signals things are out of control - the hats are in fact record company promo items - but it's also the moment that brings the preceding ten songs into sharp focus. The Streets are massively successful. Skinner is now famous. Life has changed. 'Hardest Way...' is his report from the trenches.

From that last track we find him starting the album Prangin Out and disoriented at home post-tour. But he hasn't lost his humour or his love for what he does. The frantic, synth-driven War Of The Sexes is proof, throwing back to the urban preacher approach of 'Original Pirate Material'. Skinner laments his gender's attitude towards women: "She's calculating all of the mad facts and the figures/While you're pretending to listen/Staring at her tits" he shrugs.

Where 'A Grand Don't Come For Free' followed a loose storyline as he fretted over a lost thousand quid, here the mischievous Momento Mori features the lines "I never think about money/In fact, I have no idea how much money I have". When You Wasn't Famous keeps the intrigue up and the tabloids happy, but also possesses an overlooked humour.

The emotional core of the album - the affecting Never Went To Church, an ode to his late father - is book-ended by typical Skinner wit. "Two great European narcotics...alcohol and Christianity/I know which one I prefer" he begins before concluding "I got a good one for you dad/I'm gonna see a priest, a rabbi and a Protestant clergyman/You always said I should hedge my bets".

Musically, Skinner's merely tinkered with his sound since day one - choppy beats, off-kilter synth lines and hook-filled choruses - but he remains one of the most unique talents in popular music; the world through his eyes always compelling. And 'Hardest Way...' is another essential album.

Wade Howland