Computers and Blues

Mike Skinner euthanizes The Streets

“Guys, I really am tired of it all. I want to start something new now”. This is a summary of Mike Skinner’s numerous comments on the release of The Streets last album in the winter of 2011. It has got quite a symbolic title, Computers And Blues. Mike, in his own turn, said that what inspired him to make this record was a visit to an exhibition of electronic musical instruments. Whatever motivated him, there appeared a lot of listeners who concluded that this record is nothing but a fulfillment of a contract’s obligations implying a release of an album under any circumstances. In connection with this, before they actually heard what it was, many people stated the mediocrity of the album. Since the man is so tired of the project why would he have slaved over its last record, after all? Let us not forget that someone else’s soul, particularly a creator’s soul, is a deep well where you can’t see well. Mike Skinner did the whole job with all responsibility and seriousness because he knew this would be an investment into his own future. Whatever his next project is going to be, they will not forget his highs and lows in the past.

The last album from The Streets has no room for sadness

Computers And Blues bears no burden of sadness or sorrow. There is no sensation of bereavement or loss, although many performers would build the whole record on that emphasizing the theme of finality. On the contrary, the record appears really easy and even careless. Mike takes the passing of The Streets as an inevitable natural process that is necessary for the evolution’s further course. Actually, the very issue of the project’s end is touched upon only in the concluding track, Lock The Locks, where the rapper ‘packs his stuff and looks to move to another place’. The album begins with a very good number, Outside Inside, where Mike once again attaches our attention to the topic of contrasts, difficulty of choices we make. Mike’s poetic approach has not undergone any serious adjustments. Staying away from omissions, hints and ambiguities, he calls black black and white white as he challenges people to be honest with themselves. Therefore he is very decisive in OMG as he criticizes people’s attraction to computers where they trade this life for the virtual reality. Of course, there we can find some more autobiographical songs, like Trying To Kill M.E., telling the story of the singer’s battle against epilepsy.

One story begins where another story ends

Whatever aspect of Computers And Blues you consider, you discover that this work is an excursion through the legacy of The Streets consisting of the project’s first four long players. Unexplainably compared with Eminem, Mike Skinner has never tried to be like his gigantically popular American colleague. Mike does not rely on external effect, nor does he pen deliberately pop material that would make the whole arenas crazy. Even Mike’s lyrics have not a single bit of glamour and sometimes even lack rhyme. In the meantime, Computers And Blues looks like the most fitting destination to a journey called The Streets. Mike seems no more willing to reach the audience on the highly personal level, to go back to his past and invite the listener for a sincere conversation. Having once again shown how good he can be at all that on the fifth album, the artist has closed The Streets part. It is not possible to say what exactly he is going on offer next, but its quality certainly lies beyond all doubts.