Streets
(Vice)
With hip-hop, it's quite simple: You either got it or you don't. In the case of The Streets' latest album, Everything is Borrowed, it's a lot of the latter.
Here, English rapper Mike Skinner's (the man behind The Streets moniker) toes the line between clever and cheesy, mediocre and superb, but comes out boring more often than not. Though the album's polished, bright, happy-sounding production (like an anti-thesis to the synthed-out, bass-laden, darker-seeming beats of American producers such as Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Blockhead and so on) keep it sounding interesting, Skinner's weighty emotions (even heavier than his accent) force Everything is Borrowed to sink under its own weight.
The album begins with the title track, a song which displays Skinner's mix of rapping and singing (the former on the verses, the latter on the chorus) and a fake-cheery chorus. However, it doesn't seem too come together very well - lines such as "Just when I discovered the meaning of life/ They change it" hint at a cynical outlook, but "I came to this world with nothing/ And I leave with nothing but love/ Everything else is borrowed," veer back into happy territory. Skinner just can't seem to make up his mind about the world around him, and this noncommittal attitude continues throughout the rest of the album.
For example, "On the Flip of a Coin" seems like The Streets' happy-go-lucky version of Eminem's "Stan," as Skinner tells of a boy who listens to his father's advice, plans his life around the decisions made on the flip of a coin and learns the consequences the hard way. The song, meant to be a touching tale about the meaning of life's choices, is instead too linear to be of any genuine impact. Without any metaphors or similes, what's a listener to latch onto?
And even when Skinner does get creative with his lyrics - for example, in the anti-suicide song "On the Edge of a Cliff" - the message is still too sanctimonious to be enjoyable. Lines such as, "For billions of years since the onset of time/ Every single one of your ancestors survived/ Every single person on your mom and dad's side/ Successfully looked after and passed on to you life/ What are the chances of that like?" are rapped with a poignant delivery, but that doesn't keep them from seeming like a public service announcement meant to steer you straight.
As a result, Everything is Borrowed's overwhelmingly positivity is its fatal flaw. The preachy, life-is-beautiful mentality is so overpowering that the few of the album's songs that go against it - which also happen to be Everything is Borrowed's best - seem almost unbelievable.
For example, "Heaven for the Weather" ("I want to go to heaven for the weather/ And hell for the company"), "The Way of the Dodo" ("It's not Earth that's in trouble/ It's the people that live on it/ It'll be here long after we've all got the way/ Of the dodo") and "Alleged Legends" ("If he loves us all/ Knowing all we think/ Should he only like people with faith in him?/ ... Can I be forgiven/ For only believing who I see?") criticize organized religion and society as a whole, but the tracks' up-tempo, cleverly constructed rhymes suffer under the shadow of touching-and-tragically-boring songs like "I Love You (More Than You Like Me)" and "The Strongest Person I Know."
If Skinner had taken his heart off his sleeve, put it back in his chest and turned his critical eye to the world around him more often, Everything is Borrowed would have been a far more even-handed album. Instead, it's too much love - and not enough understanding.
Standout Tracks: "Everything Is Borrowed," "On the Edge of a Cliff" ROXANA HADADI
