The Streets - The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
On his third release, Skinner takes a turn from old lyrical styles to address instead the bonuses companied by the perils of juvenile stardom. He dictates on "War of the Sexes" manners in which men might stalk their prey, women, which Skinner refers to in the song often as a “lamb.” The line “people who get hammered don’t get to nail” calls into question Skinner’s sense of humor for the new disc. Did he lose it alongside anonymity? The title track most directly addresses the struggles of celebrity by turning repeatedly to numbers to illustrate a mathematical and banal side to life as a famous face. On the seventh track of the record The Streets orate once again concerning the female gender. Skinner speaks of the handicap which fame lends him in getting girls contrasted to the regularity with which he appears to fellow well-known personalities.
When avoiding celebrity lyrics, The Streets embrace, as they have on previous discs, drug dialogue; this time cocaine is Skinner’s weapon of choice. Opening the album is “Prangin’ Out,” a track narrating a particularly unfortunate drug-riddled day and the resulting pains. The topic of prang surfaces multiple times over the course of The Hardest Way to Make an Easing Living, most obviously again on “Hotel Expressionism.” Skinner here defines the vandalism of various hotel rooms as a passionate art form. On the aforementioned “When You Wasn’t Famous” he reveals that “[his] whole life [he] never thought [he’d] see a pop-star smoke crack.”
Somehow the intended heart-wrenching “All Goes out the Window” which pushes virtuous intentions in romantic relationships comes off as dry and, somehow, emotionless. Lyrics appear forced and unnatural. “Memento Mori” upon first listen proves the weakest lyrical track in The Streets’ history. To say that admission to the fact that Skinner folds to materialistic urges to “buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy” sounds shallow would be comparable to saying that Lance Armstrong is a decent biker. However, he salvages himself lyrically on the subsequent “Can’t Con an Honest John” and later with a true tear-jerker in “Never Went to Church.” A song dedicated to his late father, the eighth track displays how even the most strained of lyrics can produce an emotional listen. Joking prowess pokes about on “Two Nations” when Skinner kids “the differences in language are just the bits you got wrong because we were the ones who invented the language.”
Musically, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living proves The Streets’ most accessible collection to date. Most tracks run a simple, upbeat course graced with Skinner’s acclaimed ability to churn out the most addictive of hooks. On the primary single and a constant topic of discussion for this review, “When You Wasn’t Famous,” The Streets ingeniously toy with pace to charge through verses only to decelerate and spit choppy rhymes for the chorus. The track harbors yet another tool Skinner fully embraces on his third release: singing. By no stretch of the imagination is Mike a good singer. However, his disgustingly struggled and tense crooning perfectly compliments the adorable accent fans readily embrace. Skinner’s flow has improved considerably on the record, and no longer do songs ooze awkwardness from various pores when disregarding lyrical work. Overall, few adaptations have allowed for minimal evolution in The Streets’ sound. Skinner, it seems, has bought into the theory of “don’t fix what ain’t broke.”Read full review
