A Grand Don't Come for Free

by

The Streets

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Mike Skinner has truely sold his soul to the devil. How else can one explain the greatness achieved on his second record, A Grand Don't Come For Free? His debut was fantastic, but I, like some of my music junkie friends, wanted to see if the tank was spent, if there was another great record to come after such a increedible start.

That question has been answered. Not only did he deliver a better record the second time out, it's almost a concept type album just based on the way it is presented to the listener. Concept album you say? Well, kinda. A Grand Don't Come For Free is basically a day in the life of Mike Skinner. He takes us on very personal, sometimes tough excursions into his mind as well as his surroundings. Rarely does an artist paint such vivid verbal imagery, but from the moment you put it on, you're right there with him. It's almost like a marathon confession and you are the priest behind the divider. Some of the things you here are kinda shocking, not in content but in the way they are everyday to him, the throw-away coupled with the essential, that tends to play havoc with him and you actually feel it.

The single, and lone radio hit, Dry Your Eyes, play out like it's a painful, yet public break-up, and you happened to sitting next to them. Another moment your tramping through a niteclub, high on God knows what, looking for friends who simply are not there (Blinded By The Lights). Desperate stuff indeed.

The album has it's upbeat tracks like Such A Tw*t, but for the most part, it's bigger focus is on the storytelling. Something it does far better than any hip-hop release in recent memory. The Streets second record wakes you up, stays with you all day and then puts you to bed. With any luck, you'll only be exhausted.

I've never written a review before, but I felt compelled to do so for this CD.

The first thing people should know about this CD is that it bears almost _no_ resemblance to the Streets' amazing, complex, tuneful, and hilarious debut, "Original Pirate Material".

This CD is stripped down in nearly every way: slower, clunkier beats; simplistic music, and no sense of the hyper, dizzyingly clever wordplay that was such a joy on OPM. Skinner seems content to just throw out whatever random thoughts happen to be in his head at the time, without much of a sense that he put any work into making the rhymes thought-provoking or entertaining. As an added bonus, these non-rhymes are pushed way to the front in an annoyingly loud vocal mix.

Imagine it this way: Pretend that the first Beastie Boys CD ever produced was Paul's Boutique. Incredible, complex, multi-layered, mind-blowing stuff, right? So you go out and buy the next one. Pretend that the next CD they put out is an even more dumbed-down version of "Licensed to Ill." That's the experience you get with "A Grand". Maybe you'll still like the second one, but it's just not the same, and in many ways it's bound to be a disappointment.

Skinner set the bar so high on the first one that he doesn't even attempt to top it; rather, it seems like he's moved on to a new sport entirely. I understand that people say this is actually a musical advance, but I'm not buying it. Sure, the new one is story-focused, but really, who cares?

I loved the first one from the minute I put it in my CD player. With this one, I've tried and tried, but so far I just can't find a way to like it. (Disclaimer: I had the exact same reaction to "Skankonia" after hearing the amazing work that Outkast did with "Aquemini". I also thought that the hammering, un-tuneful "White Blood Cells" was a musical step backward compared to the previous "De Stijl.")

That's my 2 cents...