The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living: Parental Advisory - The Streets

THE HARDEST WAY TO MAKE AN EASY LIVING is the title of Birmingham artists THE STREETS album. The album features 11 tracks which I will review. The opening song on the album is PRANGIN' OUT which tells a great story through the lyrics. Lead singer Mike Skinner's vocals are quick paced and add great energy at the chorus. WAR OF THE SEXES contains some funny lyrics about men and women while the rhythm is quite funky with solid vocals and a good chorus. HARDEST WAY TO MAKE AN EASY LIVING is lyrically superb although the song lacks some intensity with a lacklustre intro and poor melodies. ALL GOES OUT THE WINDOW is a mellow ...  Read the complete review

A lot of people came back against this album saying Mike Skinner had sold out and run out of things to talk about but I would disagree, he's still talking about his life, its just in a state of evolution and as with life his albums reflect this. I really rate this record, I think Mike has taken some time out to enjoy his life and come back and made a really intelligent album about the excesses of his life and his industry and some really personal problems and the songs are gripping and hard listening but all the better for it, stand out tracks are 'Never went to Church' and 'Pranging Out'. Album Tracks Reviewed: Prangin Out - ...  Read the complete review

In my not very humble opinion A Grand Don't Come for Free was the best of the four Streets albums produced to date however The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (Easy Living from now on) runs it a close second. In A Grand the whole track list tells out the story of a relationship Skinner (the main writer and singer in the group) had and how he came to question some of his friendships, this was against a back drop of his usual vices, drinking, gambling and drug taking which is mostly focused on grass and E's, now in Easy Living you have a more successful Mike Skinner, a man who has had two successful albums under his belt and is now able to talk about the trappings that ...  Read the complete review