By Liz Belilovskaya

The Streets’ latest album Computers and Blues is a cloudy cluster of compiled melodies and content.  It shines in places where solid production reign individually, but stumbles on a songwriting basis. There are poorly poetic lyrics paired with dynamic music featuring many snake like twists and slinky transformations. The better attributes of the record get lost in the clutter of poorly executed, but heavy content.

Musically, The Streets (Mike Skinner) surrenders to the elements of radio pop and dance that ruled 2010. Elements of jazz, blues, rap, metal, techno and dance music fuse together with acoustic guitars and form an eclectic tech-heavy texture; the mixes ooze with the presence of clever melody arrangement. The equally unpredictable styles of singing from the various collaborators add a solid tone to the interesting beat transitions.  

Computers and Blues is lyrically odd. The Streets tries to be overly poetic and unfortunately fails in his attempt. It’s not that all his lyrics are bad, there are a few good lines/bars here and there, but that alone cannot carry the entire album. He makes astute life observations and has “clever” connections in his rhymes, but lacks the skill to execute properly.  It’s as if the artist just used every rhyme in his rap arsenal without regard for the cognitive stimulation of his audience as a secondary concern.  

The coolest song on the album is “Going Through Hell.” The lyrics, the tune, the beats are all solid and well put together. The distorted guitar normalizes the track and minimized the electronic elements found elsewhere on the album. “Soldiers” is another successful track where the audience gets a balanced auditory experience between the music and the content. This is not music about sleazy street walkers and fancy cars. The Streets’ music touches on myriad life topics. “Roof of the Car” is thrown off by The Streets’ lack of flow. Ditto “Puzzled By People.” Solid lyricism falls prey to a lack of personality and technical skills.

A song from a father’s perspective about his son expresses how he thinks of his child and contemplates of how the kids life with unravel as he grows older. With the density of his music, this type of content needs to take central stage to the music or the music needs to be let alone without the lyrics, so that at least one of these two elements could be appreciated.  Computers and Blues is not bad, conceptually. The computers reflect the digital accents to his music while lyrically, his ideas about society and the world he inhabits. The Streets is an intelligent guy with some interesting musical ideas and thoughts. His ambition is laudable. His execution leaves much to be desired.

Going Through Hell

02-the_streets-going_through_hell
out of 5

Follow Us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/planetill

Join Us on the Planet Ill Facebook Group for more discussion

Follow us on Networked Blogs