The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come for Free
This concept album is the greatest concept album since The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. I realize that’s a big-ass statement; pretty ballsy of me to say considering Dark Side of the Moon released a year after Ziggy. But this arrogant grime-electro-hop has me by my heartstrings. Mike Skinner wastes no time throwing the listener down a rabbit-hole of vulnerability, distrust, and anger. And the critical song to flip the album from stoned-apathy to the aforementioned emotions is “Get Out of My House.” I think as a female myself, it just kills me a little inside, in the funniest of ways. Like…dudes are so stupid sometimes and I absolutely love that Skinner wrote a song that illustrates this so beautifully. Cheers to him for telling it exactly like it is. (That’s not to say that chicks aren’t completely out of control, we are.) As far as the music itself, Skinner’s voice is perfection. He’s got that Brummie accent, a little bit lazy and a little bit swallowed. But sexy and something that calls for your attention. His Britishisms make me feel warm and fuzzy, and the repetitive nature of the beats make it easy to get sucked into the entire story of the album. And if you don’t fall in love with his monologue in the last minute of the song, there’s no hope for you. It really all comes down to Skinner being a loveable jackass with sick beats.