Grand Don't Come For Free, A [PA] - Streets (The) > Reviews > Coronation of the Streets

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
Value for Money

Advantages:	It's not what it seems at first hearing
Disadvantages:	uses the language of the street

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Streets, I heard the supposed cockney charm of "Fit but you know it" and dismissed them as a novelty act.

Then, out of nowhere and without warning an epic tale of lost love assaults my eardrums, they were playing "Dry your eyes" with very obvious cuts as record of the week on some anonymous DJ's lunchtime show.

How do you start to describe a recording this awesome?

I'm 42 years old and seldom get excited about music anymore, Last Christmas it was the stunning cover of "Mad World" and before that it was "Common People " by Pulp.

"Dry your eyes" is poetry, if Shelley or Byron were at their peak now, this is what they would be doing.

The description of losing a lover is achingly, painstakingly heartfelt and brought me close to tears.

"Blinded by the lights" also strikes a chord, a song about waiting for a loved one whilst feeling the effects of drugs, pills and booze in the singers case as against the most dangerous drug of all, mere alcohol in my case.

He encapsulates the self-doubts and petty jealousies that are all too apparent in the early stages of relationships, in sentences made up of the most familiar and common words yet somehow gives them new meaning.

That is basically where the similarities end, the text generation and myself have so little common ground, that most of the rest of this album go right over my head.

What makes me respect this artist so much is his delivery, the singer makes none of the usual concessions to musical trends, he delivers his words in what seems to me to be a white working class cockney accent, rather than an affected American drawl.

"If you know your history, then you would know where you're coming from", as Bob Marley once sang and The Streets certainly know where they're coming from.

With my raging dislike for all things cockney, that this totally cockney music should strike a chord is nothing short of a miracle.

The Streets are on tour with "The Mitchell Brothers" next year, which brings me to my pet obsession.

Clear the cockneys from Coronation Street, there's five now, at least four too many.

I didn't mind Mike Baldwin as the token Money-centred Southerner, but bringing in another four, NO!

No Northerners in eastenders now JOOOHHH and his mum have gone.

Light relief time, which character appears in every episode of Coronation Street but never appears on the credits?

Willie Eckerslike.