The Streets

Mike Skinner used to be just like you. On his classic debut, Original Pirate Material, he was just a regular guy with an irregular knack for catchy, next-level beats. Skinner soon furthered his personal accessibility with his masterpiece of minutiae, second LP, A Grand Don’t Come For Free — a concept album with a narrow focus and sprawling insights that showed that although Skinner was on the cusp of superstardom, he still had fewer than 50 pounds in his bank account and late fees piling up at the video store. But a couple years later, everything’s changed: unless you’re a bleary-eyed crack addict with a gambling problem, tooling around in expensive cars you don’t have a license to drive, the 2006 edition of the Streets might leave you cold. You see, A Grand Don’t Come For Free sold millions in the UK and made Skinner a very, very rich man and The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living documents Skinner’s downfall following his dad’s death in 2004 with the unflinching seediness of a good E! True Hollywood Story. "When You Wasn’t Famous,” the album’s representative first single, begins with Skinner lamenting the widespread popularity of camera phones — "How the hell am I supposed to be able to do a line in front of complete strangers when they’ve all got cameras?” — before rapping about trying to pull pop stars. Skinner’s honesty is somewhat commendable and he is still a wry, witty storyteller, but these stories will alienate all but the most voyeuristic of fans. Moreover, he’s created such a jagged, unpleasant record of paranoid, claustrophobic beats that makes The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living an uncharacteristically difficult album without much of a payoff.