:: The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed

The Streets

Fans of The Streets (or more simply Mike Skinner) your worst nightmare is coming. On the eve of releasing ‘Everything Is Borrowed’, Skinner has publicly announced that this will be The Streets‘ second last album. Once his five record deal is over… then that is it for The Streets. Skinner has simply become tired of the name and the whole thing… that is a real pity as ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ shows a great deal of maturity and is by far the best Streets’ album so far. The changes to The Streets hit you like a big truck. Right from ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ you can hear the maturity as a new serious side emerges… and even better it works well. ‘Heaven For The Weather’ sees a happy upbeat side to The Streets… we certainly haven’t heard that before, while ‘I Love You More (Than You Like Me)’ brings a very Lily Allen feel to the album. The Streets’ mature sound shines through on ‘The Way Of The Dodo’ which provides thought provoking lyrics like “it’s not the earth in trouble… it’s the people on it.” ‘On The Edge Of A Cliff’ is about a man contemplating suicide while ‘Alleged Legends’ takes on a The Verve-style sound as it dissects the Bible and religion. And it’s not just lyrically that The Streets have matured, some tracks on ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ sample classical, some jazz and some just feature great guitar riffs. Whatever they sample, all the tracks here sound great. ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ will attract a whole lot of new fans to The Streets, this new mature sound suits them and it is sad that this is time that Mike Skinner decides to end it all. ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ is one of the best albums to come out of England this year.