Let's talk about the new Streets album A GRAND DON'T COME FOR FREE.

I'm finding that if you get bored with re-hearing the story, it's quite easy to zone out of the threaded episodic lyrics and enjoy the music.

Sir, you're not alone (again).

Reviewer: col from Cumbria, UK

This is absolutely shocking. First off I need to say I haven't heard the first Streets album, so this review is aimed at those similarly unfamiliar with this band/person/travesty.
Put simply - this is some of the most annoying music I have ever heard in my life. After a great write-up in Q magazine I was intrigued enough to give it a listen. OMG - It's like Ali G trying to get in touch with his sensitive side. Everything from the inane lyrics delivered in a 'Staines massive' accent to the teeth grindingly repetitive drum-beats made me want to break things.
Maybe I just don't 'get' this type of music, and I'm certain this album wasn't aimed at people with my particular tastes. Nevertheless, if this is urban music I'm pleased I live in the country.

Well, at least we've got Kid Rock.

I think most of the songs have a few lines which I love, and a few which make me cringe.

"Blinded by the Lights" and "Dry Your Eyes" are possibly my favourites, along with the current single, but that's hardly the point with such an interlinked piece.

I should probably listen a little more, maybe.

Yes, Andrew, it is beautifully uncharaceristic singing, presumably from Skinner himself (?). Not far from Wyatt, perhaps; similarly plaintive and higher-register.

And Nick, exactly. :) Literature can have all sorts of uses, and even novels too. I don't see why, in the right hands, that application of literary modes into the sequence of an album would not work. Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" is another that comes to mind with at least its second side forming at least oblique narrative.

It is very, very good. I enjoy it a lot. Overall, it is a remarkable album. On a song-by-song basis, it doesn't stack up w/ OPM but its not meant to; its sort of like Skinner making this album OK for rockists, as someone else said, and that's not a bad thing.

My only criticisms...urm there are too many plot-forwarding tracks that are worth v. little musically. The cell-phone conversation song is so boring and unneccessary, like the musical equivelent of "...the story so far!" blah. And I still maintain that the last track is a tad too saccharine. But yeah, really good album...8/10.

By the way, what I really like about it is that he GETS hip-hop narrative (which is probably where the hip-hop influence comes in) in that he speaks about stuff as he would talk to a friend, converstaionally, rather than in the all-knowing narrator that other music utilizes.

bling bling!!!!1!!

I totally hear the grime influence, on the more jittery, less melodic tracks - Not Addicted, Such A Twat, Get Out Of My House in particular.

I'm sorry, but he does.

Precis:
DH: Well this Streets chappie's new album dares to tell a story. It's the only rock opera which starts in Blockbuster and hinges around a cashpoint.
Plays: "So I failed on the DVD/Couldn't withdraw any money"
Quick fadeout
DH: That's all I can take of his delivery (cue interminable monologue about the dark side of tommy)

Remember, kids, this is what we're all up against.

He needs all that money to fund the gambling habit he doesn't have, I'd assumed.

The beat on "I Was Supposed To Be So Easy" is hard as fuck.

And I think this record is best for it's lighter, sweeter, more ambient moments. "Empty Cans" could end up being one of my favorites of the year.

DJDee and Rollie = championing rap-esque arrangements 4ever

HOW MUCH IS THE FISH IN THE SEA?!