Rating: NNN
Mike Skinner says this fifth studio album is the end of the road for the Streets, an announcement that probably won’t upset a lot of us. Not that we want Skinner to disappear. He’s obviously creative enough to explore new paths. But the naval-gazing of the Streets’ Brit-rap has felt maxed-out since 2006’s The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.
Skinner deadpans that he’s packing up his desk on Lock The Locks, the closer on an album that for the most part deals with navigating emotions within a cyber-society (We Can Never Be Friends). But holding the narrative thread, as he brilliantly did on 2004’s untouchable A Grand Don’t Come For Free, doesn’t happen here. He bounces among ideas, from an ode to his child, Blip On A Screen, to the chronic-fatigue reflection Trying To Kill M.E.
The production on this unfocused album is, as usual, nothing mind-blowing. Still, Skinner has an insightful charm and a lyrical gift that makes this a respectable send-off.
Top track: We Can Never Be Friends
