The Streets - Computer and Blues

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  • The Guardian recently described Magnetic Man as "the music Mike Skinner wishes he was still making." While I dig the sentiment, the idea that Mr The Streets is just too out of touch to produce real bass music isn't strictly accurate. After all, on the same website a week earlier, Skinner put his finger on the pulse of dubstep and its derivatives with a podcast that included Scuba, Instra:Mental and Girl Unit. So Skinner knows exactly what he's doing. He decided a long time ago that the world wasn't ready for a white personality producer of "urban" music. He followed a tangent of singer-songwritery concept pop for three albums of declining quality, when, if he'd just explored territory closer to home, he might have found himself doing something similar to "post-dubstep" pioneers like Jamie XX and James Blake, or at least Magnetic Man. Instead, Computer and Blues finds The Streets retreading barren ground. What some critics are heralding as a return to form is actually an attempt to bridge the chasm between the eccentric pop of 2008's Everything Is Borrowed and the bedroom bass jams of Original Pirate Material—one that falls short as a result. Only the one-minute speed-wobble of "ABC" comes close to matching the energy of anything on OPM, with the best of the rest sounding like rejects from Skinner's breakthrough ("Those That Don't Know") or b-sides of the hits that followed (the sub-"Dry Your Eyes" ballad "We Can Never Be Friends"). Computer and Blues sounds compromised, and closed-in. The cover shows Skinner looking out of a yuppie loft converted from the same kind of tower block in which we discovered him. Only this time, he's lost his saucer-eyed wonder at the world below and become a shut-in. We started off "listening to the streets," now we're looking in on Skinner's front room, as he smokes weed ("Outside Inside"), checks his Facebook status ("OMG") and mulls over dead relationships ("Lock the Locks"). And while those that have followed The Streets into the mainstream have found space in the sub-bass, his own productions sound small, limited—you can almost hear them rattling around inside the computer that made them. Skinner is claiming that this will be his final album as The Streets, news that many will meet with relief. Regardless of your take on his previous output, Computers and Blues finds The Streets tired and uninspired. Of course, this "retirement" could be just Jay-Z style bluff-calling; if it is, next time Skinner better bring something new to the table. Geezers need excitement.
  • Tracklist
      01. Outside Inside 02. Going Through Hell 03. Roof of Your Car 04. Puzzled by People 05. Without Thinking 06. Blip on a Screen 07. Those That Don't Know 08. Soldiers 09. We Can Never Be Friends 10. ABC 11. OMG 12. Trying to Kill M.E. 13. Trust Me 14. Lock the Locks
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