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The Streets | Everything is Borrowed

Vice (2008)
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  October 22, 2008
3.5 3.5 Stars
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I’m suspicious of cool kids. When I mention The Streets around aggressively opinionated hipsters, most dismiss Mike Skinner as expired cockney trash. But when I bump his joints for open-minded two-step virgins, they sop it up like pancakes. Those who deserted after Skinner stopped building bangers for marathon barbiturate benders might find his fresh posi-grime rhymes on cuts like “The Escapist” too distant from Original Pirate Material. Lucky for me, I’ve matured with Skinner. Aside from looming debt, I, like Mike, am doing fine for once — and it’s fabulous to see him off the ledge as well. Even though his heavy drug phase seems to be largely over, Borrowed is his Sgt. Pepper — not because he’s spelunking far-flung experimental trenches, but because he finally understands that life is larger than his ego (self-depreciating as it was). Sure, he’s softened since the money hit, but he still pens such gloriously cheesy nuggets as “I want to go to Heaven for the weather, but Hell seems like fun to me.” Our entire Britpop vernacular was culled from such gems; it’s just that some folks are too sweet on history and themselves to admit that Skinner is almost as enlightened as John, Paul, Sting, and Bernie. That’s fine with him, though, because, in his words: “I came to this world with nothing, and I’ll leave with nothing but love.” 
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  Topics: CD Reviews , Mike Skinner , The Streets , The Streets
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