In the fog between grime and club sounds, Mike Skinner looks for stories from the night.
It’s been twelve years since The Streets released a solo album. Of course, Mike Skinner wasn’t idle in the meantime, a few singles went out into the world, a vanity project called The DOT with Rob Harvey was started and finished, and also the collab album/mixtape hybrid NONE OF US, which fluctuates between sense and madness ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS LIFE ALIVE from 2020 was something like a sign of life.
THE DARKER THE SHADOW THE BRIGHTER THE LIGHT doesn’t stand as an album on its own, but is something like the soundtrack to the film of the same name that the Londoner made. Sounds ambitious – and like a fall. A fall height on which you should be able to balance safely. However, Mike Skinner doesn’t manage to do this on every track on the album. And he says quite fittingly on “Not A Good Idea”: “Maybe this is not a good idea,” and then follows it up with: “I should get out of here.”
Skinner doesn’t have to do that at all. Because even if THE DARKER THE SHADOW… is not a musical milestone like ORIGINAL PIRATE MATERIAL was at the time and the sound is not always right, Skinner manages to draw his listeners deep into the story with his word games and tightly told stories. This works best in the opener “Too Much Yayo”, in the almost classic Skinner track “Money Isn’t Everything” or “Troubled Waters”, which in its best moments quotes the nervous tension of an old track like “Turn The Page”. . An album for the fans, for the midlife crisis, for the longing for the night.