The Streets - Believe The Hype?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun May 09, 2004 5:35 pm

Every once in a while, UK music writers go wild over something new, and the hype usually ends in disaster. The year started out with Franz Ferdinand as critics' darlings, and with much justification. Their debut LP is a stonker, and reviews on their current UK tour are equally positive (too bad it sold out well before I could get near it). Check this out not only for a glowing A+ from his Mozship, but also a nice ref to the Fire Engines, which I know at least one person on this board was a fan of, a very good ref for FF:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/ ... 77,00.html

So right now the buzz is the second Streets aka Mike Skinner LP, A Grand Don't Come For Free. Check this out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/r ... 40,00.html

It was 5 stars in Q too, and the Observer music mag was raving last week. I didn't hear all of the first LP, just know the 'Geezers Need Excitement' song I had on a compilation and remember seeing him on Later. An original approach and feel, but nothing that seemed overly impressive, whereas the new LP seems to have had too good a reaction to do anything other than buy it. I like the idea of his dealing with the incredibly ordinary in an original way, and his celebration of the mundane is positively Joycean, but is it really that good? Anyone heard it yet? Anyone, like me, tempted to run out and buy it without even hearing a sample? Is the world ready for the return of the concept LP?

The cover says it all, the poetry of a bus stop in some non-descript town.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:53 am

Annoying , repetitive , whiney voice - the Housemartins/Erasure all over again - tracksuit music for people who wear tracksuits all the time.

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:01 am

hmmm. see my post on the Damien Rice thread. I'm gonna buy it. Sound good to me.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:08 pm

But you haven't heard the LP, right, MF? Surely that's too final a dismissal if not. The kind of people who review for the Guardian and Observer are not dumb, and not just hyping for hype's sake, usually. (I think Alexis Petridis is pretty smart and interesting, Kitty Empire I have less time for). When people from different start raving about something in a genuinely impressed way, it always seems at least worth checking out. OK, they want to be seen to be liking the cool things, not tobe out of touch with the zeitgeist, that's in the nature of it. And they don't wear tracksuits.

I'll wait for Doof's verdict. He's a man of good taste. It's certainly from a difficult musical planet to Erasure and the Housemartins. At least it's doing something different. As Petridis says: "using hip-hop and garage not to boast about wealth or bemoan the social underclass, but to depict a mundane British suburban existence, delivering tales of alcopop-fuelled shenanigans in a deadpan Brummie voice". Someone else said it was as if Eminem had starred in Only fools and Horses rather than 8 Mile.

Pov · Post by **Pov** » Mon May 10, 2004 3:52 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Every once in a while, UK music writers go wild over something new, and the hype usually ends in disaster. The year started out with Franz Ferdinand as critics' darlings, and with much justification. Their debut LP is a stonker, and reviews on their current UK tour are equally positive (too bad it sold out well before I could get near it).

Is "stonker" a good thing? Sounds too much like "stinker" to be good. I've been thinking of buying that CD based on some of the reviews I've seen around the US, but I've been burned before.

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon May 10, 2004 4:15 pm

Yeah... I usually don't fall into the hype trap, but it managed to happen with the first Strokes album, which I don't listen to anymore.

I've had the same sort of feeling about Franz Ferdinand as you have, Pov.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue May 11, 2004 2:06 pm

A stonker is a thing of power and beauty. FF stands for 'fucking fantastic'. Buy it, you won't be burned. It is seriously good, with loads of pedigree, very listenable, very classy. And if you can get to see them live, do so for me (cos I failed to see 'em in Londonlast week, boo hoo).

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:17 pm

BC, PM me if you want a sample or two. Cause I know you're a good man and will then go buy the CD!!

You could accuse it of being retro or derivative-- the vocals sometimes sound like XTC, the guitar has Joe Jackson-ish moments, the writing/arrangement has an late '80s/early '90s feel to it, etc., I could go on. But really, who cares? It's well done, and despite lots of influences, they really have their own sound.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue May 11, 2004 5:58 pm

XTC, yes, JJ, not so sure, timecale for me is more beginning of 80s indie rock/pop, with a heavy Scottish element: Orange Juice, Josef K, Magazine, Fire Engines, Talking Heads, Wire. And a huge love of disco, so include Blondie in there too. Was very heartened to see the singer include Queen's Don't Stop Me Now in a recent list of favoured songs. Had an argument with a 30-year old recently who insisted Queen were just wankers making music for wankers, and I thought it was said that he had to be so earnest and predictable in his taste, whereas FF have a huge fun element that makes a love of Queen's finest moments entirely appropriate. I love them.

Heard a track off The Streets LP last night, and can see why people are raving. It does have this incredible sense of 'a mate talking to you' that all reviews seem to refer to, something very original and touching in its directness. Fair dues to him. Jackson: you'll enjoy it.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:03 pm

I've just come across this in-depth analysis of The Streets phenomenon.
Very interesting reading and spot-on in most places.

http://www.popmatters.com/music/columns ... 0309.shtml

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:53 pm

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I played A Grand... at work the other week, and three songs in a 40 year old workmate of mine decided he needed to get it. This wouldn't be such a big thing if it wasn't his fifth record ever, and the first he's bought since the eighties. (The first four were Never Mind The Bollocks, We're Only In It For The Drugs by Swedish punks Ebba Grön, Lou Reed's Transformer & a Creedence Anthology, his first CD.)

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:27 pm

It's amazing how Mike Skinner reaches people who otherwise don't listen to rap or hip-hop. (like myself)
As pointed out in the article, I suppose it's probably the British cultural influences that make him so much different - and more interesting - than most of today's rap/hip-hop artists.

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The Streets - Believe The Hype?

The Streets - Believe The Hype?

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