Original Pirate Material
- The Streets
- Band Name: The Streets
- Record Label: Locked On / Vice
- Release Date: Oct 22, 2002
- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
1002002's first REAL classic.
-
100The first record in a long while I've wanted to play again immediately after it's finished. [Album Of The Month, April 2002, p.92]
-
By adding grit and gutter-savvy humor, Skinner also takes U.K. garage to a new level, making for the year's most striking debut.
-
100Original Pirate Material, to put it plainly, is the most vivid evocation of life as a young person in the UK since Blur's Parklife, and yes, even The Clash's first album.
-
There's plenty of detail, and feeling too--not just anger, tenderness.
-
An album whose scope, diversity, wit and heart make it instantly the best album of 2002.
-
90It's his lyrical earnestness that makes his decidedly British experience so universally appealing. [Nov 2002, p.76]
-
Though club-phobic listeners may find it difficult placing Skinner as just the latest dot along a line connecting quintessentially British musicians/humorists/social critics Nöel Coward, the Kinks, Ian Dury, the Jam, the Specials, and Happy Mondays, Original Pirate Material is a rare garage album: that is, one with a shelf life beyond six months.
-
90What 'Original Pirate Material' makes abundantly clear though, is that - whilst Skinner may not be at the very cutting edge of Garage's club soundtrack - he's a man blessed with an astonishing aptitude for pop and a mainline into the Zeitgeist.
-
90Like many great albums, "Original Pirate Material" wasn't meant to be adored in an instant, so don't let your first impressions fool you. This cat's the real deal.
-
Heard as a rap album, Original Pirate Material provides a compelling picture of the style wrapping itself around a different milieu. But taken on his own terms, Skinner reaches too deep and true to sound like anything but a remarkable talent in any genre.
-
Original Pirate Material is England's first great hip-hop record mostly because it isn't a hip-hop record. It's hard to say exactly what it is.
-
[A] blindingly good debut.
-
83Throughout the disc, his attention to detail and melody stretch well beyond his 22 years.
-
By turns dark, funny and heartbreaking, the songs on 'Original Pirate Material' are snapshots of ordinary life as a young midlands resident, set to innovative two-step production.
-
While Original Pirate Material isn't as good as the U.K. press hyperbole would have us believe, it does prove that sentiment and sincerity are more interesting than slickness and skills. [Dec 2002, p.96]
-
80The most distinctive producer-rapper Britain has coughed up since Tricky. [#11, p.143]
-
80The odd portentous lapse and minor clunker aside, the rate of killer lines is remarkably high. [Mar 2002, p.115]
-
On the evidence of this excellent debut, few people can challenge Skinner right now except himself.
-
80A winningly downbeat brand of urban realism, set to minimal, pounding drums. [Apr 2002, p.115]
-
80Though it sounds strange at first, Skinner's delivery is so absorbing that the accent issue will be an afterthought before opener "Turn the Page" has ended.
-
80His verbal style is notable because it avoids typical ragga chat or MC freestyling in favour of an almost literary blend of prose and verse. [#219, p.75]
-
79Skinner has an obvious talent for forging damn sharp hip-pop hooks that supercede his inherent verbal handicap.
-
70In the midst of its 14 tracks, there are a couple that, if taken on their own, would qualify as throwaways. But the way the album should be heard, as a whole, each piece works with the others.
-
70The Streets' novel pairing of dance music and wordplay hits the mark more often than not, and it's a step in a potentially interesting direction. [Nov 2002, p.93]
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 125 out of 135
-
Mixed: 0 out of 135
-
Negative: 10 out of 135
-
danielw10Brilliant. the music i normally listen to is rock music, but this album is absolutely fantastic.
-
JamesV0Music for those that know nothing about music.
-
MattC9