A Grand Don't Come For Free
- The Streets
- Band Name: The Streets
- Record Label: Vice / 679
- Release Date: May 18, 2004
- Critic Score
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100On A Grand, everything Skinner does is in service to an infinitely satisfying and resonant whole.
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91That Skinner is able to coax so much from a cliché-heavy, 50-minute examination of solipsism and self-pity is a tribute to his ability to reflect and illuminate life's detail.
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'A Grand Don't Come For Free' is proof that 'Original Pirate Material' wasn't a happy fluke.
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90His eye remains sharp.
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Mike Skinner’s taken a big risk in doing this, but he’s found the bizarre and beautiful meeting point of The Specials, Danny Rampling and Serge Gainsbourg. A Grand Don’t Come For Free is a remarkable record.
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100Skinner has often been declared the Eminem of British rap. But on A Grand..., he proves that if anything, he's British hip-hop's answer to master storyteller Ray Davies, or maybe idiot savant Brian Wilson.
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The production is as dry as old wallpaper. But as a kind of Art Brut storytelling, it is magnificent.
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100A Grand Don't Come for Free raises the stakes to such an extent that it sounds literally unprecedented: there isn't really any other album like this.
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Confronting doubts about his seriousness and squashing whispers about his talent, Skinner has made a sophomore record that expands on what distinguishes the Streets from any other act in music.
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What could be utterly pedestrian, so-what material in the hands of a lesser talent is instead imbued with cheeky mythic significance by Skinner -- blessed with an uninhibited gift for gab and a willingness to reveal all facets of his character, grotty warts included.
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The first hip-hop classic of the new millennium.
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This makes engrossing listening if the effort suits you, but it's useless as background music.
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100With this record, Skinner is now in a class all his own; nobody else is making music like this.
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Skinner’s finely honed sense of place still has a nearly hypnotic effect.
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Upping his narrative ante, Skinner goes all-in on Grand, a bold follow-up that sounds beguilingly slight and dry until details start sketching its story.
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Skinner seems both edgier and more contemplative.
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100An essential listen for anyone interested in where music might take them. [Jun 2004, p.86]
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100The best album of 2004 so far, and by some distance. [Jun 2004, p.92]
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Has as much to do with Ray Davies as it does with hip hop and garage. [Jul 2004, p.148]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 102 out of 127
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Mixed: 8 out of 127
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Negative: 17 out of 127
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LaviniaH10loved it
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10