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The Streets
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The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
Vice Records
Release: 4/25/2006
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Rated:
Review by:
Jonathan Shipley
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Maybe it's me, but a rapper rapping with hard driving beats
behind him, using oodles of swear words, and doing it with a
well-worn British accent is kind of silly. That's not to say The
Streets (Mike Skinner) is silly. He's not any sillier than
Eminem. Perhaps Eminem is silly, too. Scratch that. Mike
Skinner (The Streets) knows how to craft a song and he
does so well, with his freewheeling lyrics, aggressive British
garage rock and dance beat songs, and yet, with all that, his
latest album, The Hardest Way To Make An Easy
Living, is a definite step down from his previous
albums, particularly the critically acclaimed A Grand
Don't Come Free, the Skinner album one should be
paying attention to, that was fully drawn, delivering a
narrative with characters, conflicts, themes, plots,
resolutions. He'll be hard pressed to create a better album
for himself. The Hardest Way to Make An Easy
Living is not it.
These new songs shine a light on Skinner's newfound fame
and his life within that framework. It's derivative. Rappers
complaining about how it's more difficult to do drugs due to
the fame they've acquired and rappers rapping about
trashing hotel rooms simply is not that interesting. Artists
always seem to fall into this trap. Novelists writing a novel
about a novel writer writing a novel, for instance. The artist
M.C. Escher drawing a picture of a hand drawing a hand
drawing a hand, for example. It's okay, sure, but there's no
substance there. It's surface. It's not the meat and bones of
who the people are. It's not lifeblood. Yes, the top of the
iceberg is interesting but the iceberg, groaning right there
below the surface, is much more affecting. This is something
Skinner hasn't yet learned.
He does, however, put together some good songs on the
album; "When You Wasn't Famous" and "Can't Con an
Honest John" gets your blood pumping and makes you want
to get on the dance floor. But at the same time he's written
some real stinkers; "Two Nations," about Skinner's views on
America, "War of the Sexes," Skinner's commentary on
love, and "Never Went to Church," Skinner's meditations
about life and death that I simply can't take at all seriously
when he talks about "prangin' out" a few songs
before.
A truly good lyricist, Skinner can do better than this. Let's
hope he gets back to what got him to where he is in the first
place, a young Briton with something true and honest to say. |
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