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 A Grand don't come for Free, and neither does enjoying this album.
by Sean
 There's something about the sophomore release isn't there....
Star Wars, Soul Coughing, The Lord of the Rings (wow, let me pin on my "Hi, I'm Sean, and I'm a geek.") When you first encounter it you're always unfulfilled, that first album is fresh and new and exciting and you expect the second to continue in the trend. This is certainly the case with the second full-length by The Streets.
With their first album mainstream radio got a taste of UK hip-hop and found there was indeed a market for it. Personally, I think it's a brilliant album... now. The problem is that he's rapping about his world a telling lyric: "Around here we say 'Birds' not 'Bitches'" which means you need to know or invest some time in figuring out what he's talking about sometime*.
Now like I said I really like the first album, I bought it after hearing "push things forward" on the radio and being reminded of Roots Manuva. The second album, well for starters it's a Project Album. You remember Project Albums right? "Operation Mindcrime" by Queensryche, "The Wall" by Pink Floyd. Albums that attempt to tell a story to you, in this particular case it's the story of a guy having a crap day.
The problem is it's all gotten very minimalist and choppy, like he got so caught up in telling the story that he forgot to work his flow on the words and keep the beats going. The phrasing isn't as smart either, now while there are a few songs that I like quite a bit ("Not Addicted" and "What is he thinking") it's not as consistently good Original Pirate Material (the first release.)
Last night it was time for my weekly head shaving, so I figured we’d give her another go and put it on the stereo. I think it's starting to grow on me, if I don't try to follow the story than it's real good as background music. Who knows, maybe this'll be a new 'Empire' or 'Irresistible Bliss.'
*Just watch Human Traffic and you'll be good, yeah?
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