Despite all the idiosyncratic British character of 'Original Pirate Material' from 2002, The Streets' debut resonated with post-ravers around the world, marking it as a touchstone of life in our apathetic times. A vaguely conceptual record about "a day in the life of a geezer," 'Original Pirate Material' evoked what it is like to be a young man living at the dawn of the millennium: self-sufficient, sarcastic, and scared at the same time. Where some of the songs strayed from the premise of this album, every track of The Streets' new offering, 'A Grand Don't Come for Free', is integral to the whole, contributing to another chapter in the narrator's story of loss and redemption. More than any other recent release, this one demands to be listened to in one sitting, as the MC Mike Skinner's alter ego loses a thousand pounds, meets a girl, loses his friends, goes on holiday, cheats on the girl, gets dumped, and miraculously gets his money back. In terms of beats, Skinner has significantly upped his game, whether it's outdoing his grime counterparts with the bass of "Not Addicted" or raising the emotional stakes with the epic string passages of "Dry Your Eyes." Elsewhere, "It Was Supposed to Be So Easy" features triumphant, crackling horns, while the 60s-style "Fit but You Know It" shares the same stiff pogo rhythms that propelled Outkast's "Hey Ya" into the charts. With its multiple characters, myriad twists, and suspenseful gains, 'A Grand Don't Come for Free' feels like a screenplay on a homemade soundtrack. Indeed, if Skinner were a filmmaker, he would surely work outside the studio system, creating the kind of very personal features that never make it to the multiplex.
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