It's too Late by The Streets - Classic or Dud?

Funny how taste works like that. This world would be so boring if everyone all liked and appreciated all the same stuff.

I'm with D!390.

No, there are others. Check this thread.

- I'm not convinced by the beats.
- I'm not convinced by the rhymes.
- I'm not convinced by the voice.

It's kind of like comparing someone spending time recording in their basement to create something cool and impressive (Daniel Bedingfield) to someone spending time recording in their basement to create the foundation of something that could be cool and impressive (The Streets).

(I don't know if Skinner did actually record in his basement.)

cos Skinner is a REAL STREET GEEZER whereas Albarn was just a wannabe, heheheh

now will all u Streetz-hataz just sod off already? you're not gonna change our minds and no-one cares whats on yours...there's a war on you know

Let me second that, now that the review is finally up. I do like the Streets but I think I'd probably want to listen to Beddingfield more in the end.

(i'd prob like it's too late more (and i like it a lot anyway) if it weren't for having heard the promo version with the crappy background vocals first.)

The truth is out! Anthony's a rockist. ;-)

I want to hear a big HI-NRG trance version based around the string loop from It's Too Late. That would rule.

Do you mean Skinner's choruses are like generic house ones? As in house music? Or is this some phrase or something. If you do mean that it's a bit of a wildly inaccurate criticism, he's male for a start etc etc etc.

YES EXACTLY!

What class Skinner is is kind of irrelevant - society is not 'classless' but the areas of consumption Skinner's rhyming about more or less are; raving, smoking weed, getting pissed, arsing about with mates, worrying over girls, trying to stay out of trouble - there's nothing specifically working or middle class about any of these. In market research parlance Skinner's talking about a lifestage, not a social classification. Skinner treats class as a caricature anyway, cf. "The Irony Of It All" which is his least successful track.

'Irony Of It All' is one of the highlights of OPM for me...maybe its too 'obvious' - then again, i've never heard something like that on an actual album before (only in the pub, heh) - and the video is still brilliant, Streets DVD please

this is why the uk eminem thing totally does not work. for a start the ouevres are different, hip hop and dance music are not the same culturally by any stretch of the imagination (the fact the streets is basically an indie record doesnt detract from this argument, the schtick holds)

It would be valuable to remember that the British definition of "Middle Class" is quite different from the North American one, there's a great ILE thread on this but I'm too lazy to dig it up.

What Mike Skinner has done (also unintentionally) is do more to advance the cause of Anglophilic North Americans (and likely Anglophiles on all continents) than Morrissey, Damon Albarn and all the other Brits who have attained status in other places partially due to their incontrovertible Britishness. Most of the North American journalists who picked up on Original Pirate Material do get kind of a laugh out of it in an Austin Powers sort of way, but speaking as a Canadian who resided for a time in England and visits as often as possible, I like Original Pirate Material because it's a dead-on portrait of the people I lived with, worked with, drank with, rode the train with (etc.) while I was there. I know it's been said before, but Skinner could be anybody.

instant classic, if only for that line.

This came on shuffle today and is still utterly great.

Was there an early mix of this with a totally different chorus though? I'm sure I used to have one but if so I don't any more... am I going nuts?!

The original version which leaked prior to the album, and which I'd love to obtain again (i've lost it as well), had a sampled female (R&B presumably) vocal in place of a chorus, singing IIRC "looking for something, it's too late... won't you be a man?!?"

Much better than the ultimately super-corny chorus Skinner ultimately replaced it with. I assume it was a sample they didn't get clearance for.

To reiterate: would love to get a hold of this version again.

the version I have goes "WHO CARES for some DAY and it's too late. / WOULD YA BEEE THEREEE? WOULD YA BEEE THEREEEEE???"

YES! Tim that's the one I had too!

so the streets have a new album being released in feburary. it's skinner's last album as the streets. it's "influenced by the future."

Atrocious title.

The Streets' album trajectory mimics Oasis's, except amplifies it.

Except he was good to begin with.

Anyway, It's Too Late is at least ten times better than Dry Your Eyes.

prefer 'fool in the rain'