THE STREETS
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living
Vice
· Combining clever lyrics with some of his best beats to date, Mike Skinner confesses to all of his tabloid-worthy sins.
Mike Skinner has always been one step ahead of the curve, and on his newest collection of geezer narratives, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, he’s flipped the switch yet again. Going on the offensive against U.K. tabloid scandals that have dogged him throughout his unlikely rise to fame over the past few years, the skinny sinner has decided to beat the mudslingers at their own game. From violence to sex to the abuse of alcohol and "prang," Skinner airs out all of his dirty laundry in that now familiar half-rapped, half-spoken, all undeniably clever style.
Fortunately, Skinner’s lyrical mastery is suitably backed by the most immediate musical accompaniment he’s had to date. Off-kilter grime beats are peppered with skittering snare drums, slammin’ dancehall breaks and even looped whistle samples, as heard on the instantly appealing title track. Detailing the tribulations of working in the music industry, Skinner touches on everything from video costs to label demands to maintaining a fresh fashion sense, all under a Seven Dwarfs, "Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho, it’s off to Work we Go" inspired tune.
Opener "Pranging Out" contains a similarly hypnotic backbeat, as Skinner experiences a paranoid drug-addled dilemma. Simultaneously self-referencing and poking fun at his previous release A Grand don’t Come for Free’s most self-consciously emotional moment, Skinner drops one of this album’s best lines – "this time I’m drying my eyes, and a fuckin’ nosebleed." On "War of the Sexes" he provides a few helpful tips on how to steal a girl from her man, while "Hotel Expressionism" explains the ins and outs of trashing a rented room under a drilling dance beat. However, Skinner’s falsetto-inflected hook on "When You Wasn’t Famous" combined with the stunning horn, snare and steel drum combo might just make this song the next heavily rotated "Fit But You Know It." And hey, no complaints here.
These 11 tracks don’t form a story as conceptually connected as A Grand, but Skinner’s darkly deprecating lyrics will surely satisfy longtime fans, and the massively insistent beats will likely win him some new supporters as well.
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