None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Alive - The Streets: Review
is a British experimental hip hop project fronted by Mike Skinner. The project was responsible for some of the most essential and critically acclaimed British hip hop of the 2000's and its been 9 years since their last record. The band developed a unique sound that interpolated spoken word type vocal performances and downtempo electronica in its instrumentals.
Review By Lavender:
Unlike most music fans living in the United States I am a huge fan of The Streets. Thanks to the internet I was able to access the bands first couple of records earlier in my life and I developed a string appreciation for the groups sound, particularly on their exceptional debut album Original Pirate Material. Now that the project is a solo effort of Mike Skinner nearly every single song here has one or more features from contemporary artists in the world of British hip hop and beyond. It took me all week of repeated listens to make up my mind on this album and while some songs still confuse me a tad I think I enjoy the album quite a bit.
The trio of singles form the album that ended up landing on the record are all pretty solid in their own right. The opener Call My Phone Thinking I'm Doing Nothing Better has one of the most high profile features on the record with Kevin Parker from Tame Impala providing a pretty solid hook that fits sonically into the song pretty tightly. The verses are the typical spoken word parallel and the song works pretty well with a few sharp lyrical points throughout. I Wish You Loved You As Much As You Love Him is a strange crossover of R&B and dance music and while I have never been a major fan of Mike's singing voice the hook here is kind of fascinating. The almost robotic manner in which it's manipulated strangely grew on me a lot and when paired with the rest of the song which I enjoy particularly the Greentea Peng performance it is a highlight. Finally there's Falling Down which has been stuck in my head since I first heard it with its slow developing but effective hook I quite enjoy. This track has one of the weaker features on the album vocally which is a bit unfortunate but it still never stopped me from enjoying the song as a whole.
I was pleased to find a handful of tracks on the record that I liked even more than the singles and they became the real highlights for me. The title track None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Alive brings some quintessentially British political commentary over a pounding rock instrumental. Joe Talbot from Idles manages to hold his own with Skinner in the second verse despite not using his voice to quite the extreme he typically does. The song is a big lyrical highlight towards the start of the record. The Poison I Take Hoping You Will Suffer is another song I really enjoy with yet another lyrical highlight as Mike tries to take a fresh perspective on relationships in the modern age as he so often does on the record. The featured rapper dominates the second half of the song but manages to hold his own nonetheless. Conspiracy Theory Freestyle could fit into a classic Streets record better than pretty much any other song here. There is finally a true vocalist handling the hook and they do a great job which lets Mike really focus on his performance as he rattles off some great bars with a compelling flow. The records closer Take Me As I Am features two step percussion and fast paced fiery verses that I really like. The instrumental breakdowns are a little bit weird at first but they really work at establishing a really jittery uptempo flow for the track and the moment that ends, the entire record comes to a close.
The record has a few duds but many of the tracks here featured performances that vary big time in quality and the result is songs I'm mixed on. I Know Something You Did is another track where I know the sung vocals on the hook aren't conventionally good but something is appealing to me about them nonetheless. This time though the verses are much more solid and remind me a little bit of some of the more recent Streets records. Even the sleepy Jesse James Sullivan verse mostly fits into the songs slower progression and the result is an alright track. Eskimo Ice is a super interesting song where Mike and featured rapper Kasien trade off fiery politically charged verses over a blown out beat. The only thing that holds the song back is that the hook is kind of a total whiff both from a singing and songwriting perspective. Same Direction is a decent song that sees Mike giving a pretty solid performance across the tracks verses and while the rattling trap high hats get really really old by the end of the song there is at least some refreshing structural change ups to grab onto.
The record does have two tracks that I think are pretty major misses. You Can't Afford Me has a very cheap sounding wiry instrumental and a hook that is another huge miss. Even on top of this neither Mike of Ms. Banks show their best sides on the verses and there isn't much of anything about this track I like. Phone Is Always In My Hand is the one hook where the bad singing finally catches up with the record because no matter how badly I want to like it, the hook comes off as incredibly annoying. The verses are decent but nothing special enough to make me sit through the hook three or four times.
None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Alive is a solid record populated by a lot of young talent, yet for all its good tracks it lacks the methodical consistency of The Streets best material. At times it feels like there isn't enough Mike Skinner on this record and some of his performances read as the ramblings of an artist entering a new phase of his career rather than the sharp contemporary political commentary he built his name on. Despite this not sounding quite as much like The Streets as I and many others would like I think there is a unique appeal to a record like this and I know I will be revisiting some of these songs all year. 7/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
Really minimal cover but still impacful. I'm a fan of the flat lay compositions and think that the subject matter works well with the name of the group. The expansive dark background also means this cover could be stretched and worked to fit any promotional material which is a really good thing for something as important to image as this. 6/10
For more unmistakably British music check out my review of The 1975's Notes On A Conditional Form here
