by
The Streets
- Record Label: Atlantic
- Release Date: Oct 20, 2023
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UncutOct 25, 2023Skinner's brightest, punchiest and most eclectic in memory. It's a welcome return. [Dec 2023, p.36]
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Oct 20, 2023Overall, it feels less like a comeback and more like the latest chapter in the ongoing saga Skinner has been spinning since 2002.
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MojoOct 18, 2023Skinner's grown-up musings are more twisty and cryptic than his rascally early work, but no less incisive or well-wrought. Inimitable, humane, flawed, it's good to have him back. [Dec 2023, p.86]
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Oct 18, 2023More so than some of his other recent material, the record has a sense of drama and occasion to it, as well as being the most musically seamless album he’s made in nearly twenty years, since 2004’s ‘A Grand Don’t Come for Free’.
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Oct 23, 2023The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light is baggy and unfocused. If he wants to sell a promise of salvation, he needs a better story to tell.
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Oct 18, 2023The record isn’t a patch on his very best stuff, but compare Original Pirate Material to the work of the vast majority of artists and they’ll come up short. For every eye rolling moment, there are more than enough to make you glad The Streets are back.
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Oct 18, 2023While ‘The Darker The Shadow’ is ambitious, packed with witty, insightful commentary on the human experience, its conceptual focus allowing plenty of scope for creative flourishes, it ultimately lacks the incisive punch of his earlier songwriting.
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Oct 18, 2023Too often on The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light you find yourself reaching for the earlier albums to listen to instead. While Skinner’s hardcore fans will be pleased to see him back, much of the time this feels a lot like The Streets on autopilot.