The Streets

The Streets

The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (Vice/Atlantic)

Is Mike Skinner having a midcareer crisis? The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living sure makes it sound that way. Whereas his 2004 rap opus, sophomore album A Grand Don't Come For Free, was a snarky day-in-the-life narrative dressed in working-class grime and Skinner's beat-jumping cadence, his lyrics here change gears from PlayStation ennui to paparazzi and drug-fueled paranoia. The opening bump of "Prangin Out" unravels a tale of coke-frayed nerves as Skinner sings, "I'm about to do something stupid." The title track burns slow as the MC itemizes a year in his life, counting off album sales and meetings with record execs with distanced disdain, which continues on the Eighties synth crash of "When You Wasn't Famous," wherein he laments not being able to "do a line" when everyone has a camera phone. "Never Went to Church," a tribute to Skinner's deceased father, seems out of place, especially when tailed by the neck-breaking grime beats of "Hotel Expressionism," a song about, well, trashing hotels. On closer "Fake Streets Hats" Skinner gets real: "If you don't like what's going down, you need to change something 'round." This is his confessional, but fame's a bitch – she's gonna tell everyone. (The Streets pave La Zona Rosa, Friday, June 16.)