Day 0958 - A Grand Don’t Come For Free

The Streets “A Grand Don’t Come For Free” (2004)

To my mind The Streets are punk.  What I mean by that is that punk rock took music, stripped the “you need to be a trained musician” requirement, replaced it with an “anyone can do it” ethos and brought it down to the street level.   Likewise, plenty of Brits were hip-hop fans, being wowed by the vocal prowess of rappers but not necessarily feeling a connection with stories of street murders, gangstas etc.   

 

Mike Skinner’s musical project the Streets gave his listeners stories of trying to return a DVD in “It Was Supposed to be so Easy”, gambling (badly) “Not Addicted”, looking for a romantic connection at the bar “Could Well be in”, or of finding someone attractive but being put off by the fact that they are well aware of their looks “Fit But You Know it”.  

As well as the ‘real’ subject matter, Skinner's delivery is not really mile-a-minute spitting, nor does he have the smoothest flow.   He almost sounds like a quietly amused bloke who's wandered onto the stage at a karaoke bar.   I mean what other rapper could get away with a cracker of a line like "This night's not even begun, yes, yes, oh yay".  There's a narrative running through the songs which I vaguely picked up on.  

Still not always my cup of tea, I tend to prefer slightly more obscure or 'wordplay' sorts of lyrics rather than this wave of "I like it because they're talking about things we all know about" artists.   I do like some of his stuff though, and I can hear why others would too.

Day 0896 - HMS Fable

Shack "HMS Fable" (1999)

I'd initially put this one on while I was cooking dinner.  I  was listening to the first track thinking "oh yeah I think I know what this one is about - sounds like a bit of 90s brit rock, like Oasis but with a touch of Suede.   But then that first track "Natalie's Party" breaks from its rowdy-yet-melodic rock to drop in a nice little string section.   I decided I needed to give the album a bit more of my attention rather than having it as background music.    

I've listened to it a couple of times through now and there are certainly some swirly rock tracks that have more than a hint of the 'Madchester' sound but this album is all over the place in an interesting way.

There's bouncy melodic "Lend's Some Dough" with its beautiful layered vocals.  "Captains Table" has a dreamy, folky vocal-heavy sound not unlike the last Tripping Daisy albums before they transitioned into Polyphonic Spree.   "The Streets of Kenny" somehow manages to build a mellow, vocal laden track into what feels like a crescendo before suddenly cutting out and dropping you into "Re-instated" which, with its strings and mellow trumpet parts almost seems to hint at Burt Bacharach.  After a couple of more guitar-heavy tracks, the album closes out with the delicate acoustic "Daniella".

Day 0620 - 16 Lovers Lane

The Go-Betweens "16 Lovers Lane" (1988)

Referred to in some quarters as 'the Indie "Rumours"' because romantic relationships within the band were ending (singer/songwriter Robert  Forster and drummer Lindy Morrison) and just taking off (singer/songwriter Grant McLennan and violinist Amanda Brown).  In amongst this changing and potentially volatile dynamic, their bass-player had also left and been replaced.

The album reflects that landscape, with a mix of upbeat pop songs and dole-drum laments.  The band broke up following this album (but reformed several years later).   The songs aren't terrible, but honestly, I listened to the album about 4 times in a row, and aside from vaguely recognising one or two songs when they came back around, it mostly just didn't feel like any of it was memorable enough to stick with me.

Day 0409 - Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (1978)

Legal, record label issues prevented Bruce from recording a follow-up to "Born to run" for a few years. When he finally came back, Springsteen was somewhat jaded by fame and had been spending time in between tours on a farm that he'd purchased, revisiting his small-town upbringing.

This album is a different beast from 'born to run', often quite stripped down, the musical equivalent to a gravelly country road. Arguably this is where Springsteen's gravelly voiced, small-town rocker sound reached maturity

The album didn't produce any 'hits' but has apparently maintained its popularity with Springsteen fans. "Adam raised a Cain" and "Streets of fire" are blisteringly good tracks with pounding vocals.