Blinded by the Lights, Dizzy New Heights! (Original Pirate Material - Streets)

Member Name: LauraElliott

Product:	Original Pirate Material - Streets
Date:	29/12/02 (1765 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant Album, Excellent combination of Tunes, Lyrics are fantastic

Disadvantages: Some songs are a bit repetitive

I first heard about The Streets, when I heard 'Has It Come To This?' (Track Number Two on the album), on a garage compilation that my friend had either bought or compiled himself using his CD-rewriter. I recognised the tune from my recent holiday to Magaluf, Majorca, and possibly from the holiday before that, when I went clubbing in Ayia Napa, Cyprus. It is a typical clubbing song, with a fast beat and catchy lyrics - ideal for dancing to and standing around bopping with a Barcardi Breezer. Original Pirate Material was released on the 25th of March 2002 (in the UK)?in the USA, it was brought out more recently (22nd October 2002).

22-year-old Mike Skinner made many mistakes. If you are a white one-man band and want to establish yourself in the general locality of the hip-hop world, your first major mistake would be to call yourself 'The Streets'. A clear as crystal name like that cries out for a condemnation, not to mention a pummelling. Your second mistake would be to record your album on relatively low-rent gear that makes it sound as if it were created in your bedroom, instead of in an expensive studio. The Streets 'make bangers, not anthems - leave that to the Artful Dodger' (one of their lyrics).

Original Pirate Material is a VERY BRITISH ALBUM! You have been warned! If you don't like English accents, then this album won't be for you. Fourteen fabulous tracks are awaiting you!

The front cover of the album might not be that appealing to the majority of people, but if you are the 'sort of person' who is likely to buy this CD, then you would probably like it. On the front cover is an ugly, faceless, low-income block of flats. This is possibly an idea thought of by The Streets, as it shows where they were brought up, and gives an indication of the message he is trying to get across throughout the album. Architectural eyesores like the one shown, seem to warrant nothing more than a passing glance, but
when you start to stare at the dozens of illuminated windows, you soon become aware of all the different lives intertwining in the building, all the stories, be they gloomy or joyful, desperate or mundane. Mike Skinner's story is just one of them, and his remarkable homemade debut, under the name of 'The Streets'?, makes it one you won't soon forget.

1. Turn the Page - 3:15
2. Has It Come to This? - 4:04
3. Let's Push Things Forward - 3:51
4. Sharp Darts - 1:33
5. Same Old Thing - 3:22
6. Geezers Need Excitement - 3:46
7. It's Too Late - 4:10
8. Too Much Brandy - 3:02
9. Don't Mug Yourself - 2:39
10. Who Got the Funk - 1:50
11. The Irony of It All - 3:29
12. Weak Become Heroes - 5:33
13. Who Dares Wins - 0:34
14. Stay Positive - 6:16

Track Number One is called 'Turn The Page'. It starts off with a very quiet whoo-ping noise and then a beat gets added, and then another beat interlocks. It sounds like a skipping beat and the lyrics kick in with 'That's it, turn the page, on the day walk about 'cos there's sense in what I say' and ends with 'stand by me my apprentice, be brave, clench fists'. This song resembles fighting and arguing. It symbolises the feelings and emotions of two different people going through a difficult time and how they improve 'five years older and wiser', 'the wars over, the bells ring'. It then goes on to talk about the joys of like 'a new baby's born'. The song is very much war based, with lots of mentioning of soldiers and 'knives and swords' as well as many other weapons - with the moral being 'actions speak louder than words'. There is a lot of warning's throughout this song, particularly 'Brace yourself, 'cos this goes deep'. Utilising a simple, yet memorably effective strings sample, his tone is more conversational than someone m
erely spouting rhymes. The song works as an overture for the rest of the album, as he describes a scenario that's part fantasy and part prophet
ic, hinting that the lower ranks have more courage than the upper classes think, despite the increasingly trying times 'It's a fine line between strife or crime'.

I have already mentioned Track Number Two called 'Has It Come To This?' This was the first song ever released by The Streets, and also happens to be the inspiration for the title of the album - 'Original Pirate Material'. It is basically a song stating that everyone should be treated the same 'white or black', 'some men rise and some men fall'. The chorus of this song is extremely catchy '?Has it come to this? Oh, oh, oh, oh, Original Pirate Material, you're listening to the streets, right down your aerial.' This song mentions a lot about London life 'joyriding, subways, 'geeza's walking the gangway', 'ripping down posters from last weeks garage night'. This song brings back memories for me, because I come from close to central London and have experienced these happenings before. The breezy tones of 'Has It Come To This?', with its light, two-step rhythm and soulful vocal samples contradict with the subject matter, namely a snapshot of early-20's depression during a brutally hot summer It makes us visualize Playstations, weed, and restless young people, or as he aptly puts it, 'Sex, drugs, 'n' on the dole' and 'Deep-seated urban decay'?. He continues with some knockout lines, like, 'I step out my yard through the streets, in the dead heat all I got is my spirit and my beats.'

The dub-infused 'Let's Push Things Forward' is the album's boldest track, as he performs a similar meshing of genres as The Clash accomplished on their Sandinista! album, while he dares to challenge listeners to exercise more good
taste in their musical choices: 'You say that everything sounds the same, then you go buy them, there's no excuses my friend, let's push things forward'' It's a ballsy thing to say, but he backs up his statement; he does push things forward, just as The Clash did on songs like "The Magnificent Seven" and "Mensforth Hill", combining the raw, bass-heavy, Jamaican characteristics of dub with his own form of UK Garage: 'This ain't your typical Garage joint, I make points which hold significance, that ain't a bag it's shipment, this ain't a track it's a movement.' Aware of the influence the band has on his own song, he even throws in a quick nod to The Clash, saying, 'As London Bridge burns down, Brixton's burning up, turns out your in luck.'

This is a coincidence that Brixton is mentioned in 'Let's Push Things Forward', because The Streets next tour is on Friday 7th February 2003 at the Brixton Academy. Tickets cost £15.00 (hopefully me and a few friends will be going!)

'Sharp Darts' is the bass heavy hip-hop track, over and out just as your head got in. This track is perhaps the most Americanised tune on the album - with its shuffling beat and stoned, menacing vocals, it could almost qualify as a Wu Tang production.

'Same Old Thing'? and 'Geezers Need Excitement' vividly describe the mind-numbing routine of nightly pub life. '?Real people, same repeated sequel', is showing us that every night seems the same and all begins to fuse together as one long amount of time. It also describes one's desire for something, anything to happen. 'Same Old Thing' uses more of a techno supplement and stuttering beats to back up his sharp lyrics, such as, 'Seems the only difference between mid week sh*t and weekend is how loud I speak.' The excellent, sinister 'Geezers Need Excitement' (?If their lives d
on't provide them this they incite violence') depicts the rage that's always bubbling below the surface in young males, as the harshly minimal music hints at something rather malicious lurking, waiting to be let loose. His word sketch of a café brawl erupting is nothing short of powerful: 'Geezers looking ordinary and a few looking leery, chips fly round the sound of the latest chart entry, an incendiary waiting to blast . . . Behind the counter they look nervous, but, carry on cutting the finest cuts of chicken from the big spinning stick, then over flies a chip, flips, and hits you on the back, you spin round on the attack, 'F*ck you playing at?'

The surprisingly lush and catchy 'It's Too Late' offers up another feature of an everyday bloke's life: girl trouble. Combining the sweetly honest emotion of a regular guy with touches of gentle humour (?We first met through a shared view, she loved me and I did too?), the song is a startling change in mood from the two menacing tracks that go before it. His character displays an contemplative, positively wide-eyed view that differs immensely from all the posturing among his male characters: 'Standing at the top of this huge mountain, smiling and shouting, spring flowers sprouting, not one inch of doubt in my mind as I reached the gates.' When he lets his girl slip away, the lyrics are heartbreaking, as he says, 'She'd walked away, too little too late, I step up the pace, walk past the gates, rain runs over my face, spirit falls from grace.'.

Track Number Eight is named 'Too Much Brandy'. It comically depicts a drunken night among friends at a club, and the everlasting, foggy-headed ride home - 'We eat junk food, sat drunk on the tube, every time the train clunks I feel like puking, wonder whether that beautiful bird'll ring / Then it all goes hazy . . .'.

My favourite track on the album - Number Nine! 'Don'
t Mug Yourself' is also a couple of my close friend's personal favourite choice because it involves light humour with a true meaningful message. 'Last night was some beer-laryness done our way but again we're back in the light of day,' as his character contemplates ringing up the 'bird' he met the previous raucous night. He and his mates, sitting over eggs and coffee at a café, engage in light-hearted banter; his friends plead him to not look so eager, to which he defensively replies, 'And I'm like, 'Honestly it's not like that, your acting like I'm prancing like a sap, jumping when she claps and that.'"

'Who Got The Funk'? happily blurts out all the Streets clichés in a highly enjoyable self parody, to nostalgia for the divine keyboard lines of House and its many descendants.

Original Pirate Material hits its comedic peak in 'The Irony of It All' where he portrays two vastly different characters: Terry, a thuggish, drunken football fan, and Tim - a flaky pothead. A riff on the irrationality of marijuana's illegality, Terry bluntly philosophises, 'And when the weekends here I to exercise my right to get paralytic and fight . . . See if that bothers you cause I never broke a law in my life.' To which Tim retorts, 'Just a few eighths and some Playstation's my vocation, I pose a threat to the nation . . . I take pride in my hobby, homemade bongs using my engineering degree.' Back and forth they go, in a hilarious exchange that rivals Irvine Welsh's funniest moments, with neither character appearing particularly bright in the end. It is like a conversation, a tale to describe two grown (yet immature) men's night out on the town.

'Weak Become Heroes' is a tribute to the rave days of the Nineties, is fashioned creatively, as he tells a story of hearing a song from his youth that takes him back to his first rave experience. 'All t
he commotion becomes floating emotions,' he says, 'Same piano loops over and over, arms wave eyes roll back and jaws fall open, I see in soft focus.' He gets lost in a daydream reminiscing about 'geeza's on E's and first timers kids on whizz, darlings on Charlie', before his attention is brought back to the present day, and the song concludes on a regretful note: 'The world stands still as my mind sloshes round, the washing up bowl in my crown, my life's been up and down since I walked from that crowd.'

'Who Dares Wins' is the thirteenth track on the album, and unluckily, I haven't really got much to say about it. It isn't one of my favourite tunes on the album, but it isn't one of the worst either. The moral of the song is basically peace through strength.
All the tracks I've mentioned are great on their own, but Original Pirate Material wouldn't completely work without a fitting conclusion, and he pulls out the aces on the closing track, 'Stay Positive'. Over a deliberate, mid-tempo beat and a looping, four-note piano sample, he touches on the subject of one's descent into hard drugs 'Weed becomes a chore, you want the buzz back so you follow the others onto smack, as a means to forget about bad luck'. But according to our humble narrator, there's more to life than moping: 'Get the love of a good girl and your world will be much richer than my world, and your happiness will uncurl . . . Positive steps will see your goals,' as the chorus of 'Just trying to stay positive' repeats, mantra like, as if our hero needs to repeat the line over and over, just to keep him from slipping over the edge. You get a bit of a hint of a sarcastic overtone, as if he's trying to tell us that it may be easy to say, but it's extremely hard to maintain a positive attitude in this day and age.

Overall, with Mike's laid-back common style voice, th
at dominates, pushed right up in the mix, and his delivery, while many will categorise it as rapping, actually draws more influence from contemporary slam poetry, which itself is heavily influenced by the gutter-level poetry of the Beat writers fifty years ago. He doesn't yell, he doesn't boast; like I mentioned earlier on, his style is more conversational. He's inoffensive and modest, and his delivery only bears the slightest hint of rhythm.

To hear Original Pirate Material is to be led through Mike Skinner's neighbourhood: past the tenements, the drug addicts, the thugs, the men and women on the dole, the clubs, restaurants, and living rooms where people like Mike bide their time, hoping for their one chance to rise above this scene. 'I ain't helping you climb the ladder,' Skinner says on the record, 'I'm busy climbing mine.' With this album, he's put himself so high up the ladder that it's no use trying. This is the type of album whose influence could be felt in the coming years; after all, it's pretty inspiring to see an unknown Birmingham lad come from out of nowhere and establish himself both as a hip-hop amateur and a fine street poet, and you can expect many kids to create their own Do-it-yourself music project as a result. Whether or not Mike Skinner will be able to follow it up is up to him. In the meantime, though, he has left us an album for the ages.

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