Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
In a thrilling UK Garage scene, blighted only by a reliance on drippy soul cliché and tiresome braggadocio, The Streets' eminently quotable Mike Skinner may just be the voice to take it to the next level with Original Pirate Material. This debut is a staggeringly eloquent and fearlessly honest snapshot of gritty street-level existence, as experienced by an ordinary bloke. At first listen, the Birmingham-born Skinner's cheeky cockney affectations grate slightly. But for every line that makes you squirm, there's 20 that drop your jaw. "Has It Come To This?" is "A day in the life of a geezer", a seductive encapsulation of London lifestyle, presented raw as a bootleg, but bulging with sharp wit and feverish detail. "Stay Positive" weaves a fearful tale of heroin addiction, Skinner sneering "I ain't no preaching fucker/ An' I ain't no do-goodie-goodie either/ This is when shit goes pear-shaped". And "The Irony of It All" presents a beguiling case for legalisation, presenting a fictional exchange between a beered-up, self-righteous lager lout and a fey student weed enthusiast. Original Pirate Material is a milestone, the real voice of British youth set down on record. Don't miss this.--Louis Pattison
Product Description
YOU'RE LISTENING TO THE FUTURE In the uk, underground garage is the new punk, it's artists vilified and feared by the establishment yet held dear by the nation's youth. Enter, mike skinner, everyman poet. Under his moniker of the streets skinner hilariously, painfully and perfectly pieces together rhymes against a hand-crafted uk garage backdrop
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Had heard a lot of good things about this album but, at the time, was a committed indie fan so didn't really take much notice of the hype, then i actually heard the album. Every track on this album is great, from turn the page to stay positive, with the stand out tracks being the magnificent weak become heroes and the under-rated its too late. The main attraction of this album is that it speaks to everyone and everyone can relate to what mike skinner is saying in these songs, from indie fans who woul never go near this type of music, to dance fans who will like the beats in songs like weak become heroes and has it come to this.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By The Flashman
Format:Audio CD
Masterful, quality, top-notch Urban poetry at its gritty best. Skinner lays insightful, dark, deep, philosophical - often plain hilarious lyrics over quality beats to achieve an unforgettable album. "Turn the page" - what a beautiful beautiful song. Powerful lyrics with a rising, rising pheonix of a garage beat - the strings repeating, rising. Beautiful. Seriously, it makes my spine tingle when I listen to it. Such a good album. "Geezers need excitement" - dark social commentary that provides a superb line. The rest of the album is equally superb - please buy this.
Masterful. Such a good album. If you haven't listenend to this yet, you're in for a treat. Don't listen to anyone who calls it "chavvy" or anything like that, and don't be put off by the hip-hop/garage sound to Skinner's music, this is an album that transcends any boundaries - if you love music and have an open-mind, you'll soon recognise how superb this album is.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Just like some of the other reviews, I intensly dislike garage - the music and life behind it all. But this album is sheer genius. In one sentence Mike Skinner can sum up more about teenage life in (South) London than So Solid could in a whole album. Every record is intelligent, thought through and well delivered. And in the case of "The Irony of It All", also extremely amusing in places.
Ignore the barriers of what style of music you would normally buy and go and get this album today.
Mike Skinner is best at summing up his own work: "Brace yourself, cos this goes deep," "This ain't your archetypal street sound," and "I excel in content and deliverance." He's right on all three.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A seminal work in contemporary youth culture. Skinner encapsulates the lived experience of male working class youth around the turn of the millenium, at once chronicling, exploring and also challenging this identity.
Original Pirate attacks mass-produced pop in "Let's Push Things Forward" and "Turn The Page" (my crew laughs at yer rhubarb and custard verses), is brutally honest and observant in the every day ordinaryness, "Same Old Thing" (apparently there's a whole world out there somewhere... I just don't see it) and "Geezers Need Excitement" (if their lives don't provide them this they incite violence) and satirical to boot, "The Irony Of It All" (Dear Leaders, please legalise weed for these reasons).
A gem from start to finish.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By D COOK
Format:Audio CD
This CD should have been up for the Turner prize, as art that actually means something is hard to come by these days. It is also rare in that it completely lives up to the hype surrounding it. This is an album that can be enjoyed by fans of all musical genres.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Ever since garage erupted a couple of years ago, the scene has been looking for its REAL stars. They thought they found one in Craig David, but then the bobble-headed one degenerated into a more easy niche - american styled R'N'B with garage-lite beats. This was Mainstream Garage and has continued to polloute the airwaves with a slew of similar acts such as Mystique, DJ Luck etc. Then garage fans starved for thrills were confonted with a new garage, a dark garage, a dirty garage, a So Solid Garage. They were the next big thing and were hyped to be Britain's ten-year late response to America's NWA. They were shown up, however, to be as one-dimensional as the overground garage supremos they were riling against in their 'playa-haters' anthems.
Now, dance music's brightest star. No hype, no fan-fares, just pure genius. UK Garage finally has a world-class spokesperson and is in the shape of 22-year old Mike Skinner. Just when you thought there were no surprises left in modern pop music, an artist comes along and disproves that notion completely. He has single-handedly restored hope in the genre of British dance music and, particularly, UK Garage.
Packed to the rim with sharp one-liners, vicious beats and brilliant production, Original Pirate Material is a masterpiece of urban soundscaping and real-life lyrical vignettes concerning wild nights in Amsterdam, addiction, fighting in the pub and getting wasted. Skinner delivers these lyrics in his very own style, practically spitting them out in his Brummie accent and not trying to appeal to a mass audience by Americanising his accent. Meanwhile, there is Specials-style ska, 'Blue Lines'-era Massive Attack and skittering two-step playing in the background.
... Read more ›
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 198 reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
great
Having bought the Cd version years ago, I bought this Vinyl just for the cover. Looks great and will be going straight up onto the wall.
Published 7 months ago by Dmack
5.0 out of 5 stars
OldManIndie
Simple. In 2002 I was in my independent record shop looking at the usual stuff. This came on playing in the shop & I was absolutely hooked immediately. Read more
Published 10 months ago by STRANGETOWNBLISTERSONMYFEET
3.0 out of 5 stars
PLAUSIBLE,
I think the thing that saved this whole album was his style, everything was very heard it before, apart from the few cuts such as has it come to this, the last song could have been... Read more
Published 12 months ago by eloquent
1.0 out of 5 stars
CD doesn't even work!
Bought it as advertised as a new CD and then stupidly on my part didn't play it as soon as it arrived. Have now found out that it doesn't work. Read more
Published 19 months ago by GB
5.0 out of 5 stars
Modern Classic
Perhaps, in Mike Skinner's words it's a "cult classic, not bestseller."
It's got some faults but unless you were around in 2002 when Original Pirate Material came out,... Read more
It's got some faults but unless you were around in 2002 when Original Pirate Material came out,... Read more
Published 20 months ago by D. Smith
1.0 out of 5 stars
utter garbage
i was unlucky enough to be subjected to some of the tracks on this piece of trash which has the cheek to be on the amazon music section.dont be fooled.its not music. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr. M. Stuart
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great CD
I bought all of the Streets' albums. I would have rated 5-stars, but a number of the CD cases were broken when they arrived.
Published 23 months ago by Ed Byrne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Original Pirate Material
ELLO? ELLO? haha what an album. the lyrical genius of this is beyond comparison. this is what a walk through urban england sounds like. Original Pirate Material
Published on 20 May 2010 by DNB world wide
4.0 out of 5 stars
the streets
awesome tunes, good to hear some of the old material. With so much new about, you forget how good the older stuff is.
Published on 1 Jan 2010 by K. A. Byram
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Varied Work, Musically Beautiful
Had to post a review as the more I listen to Mike's new work, the more I value this album. It has such a nice pace, and while having a little 'working class hardman' style to it,... Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2009 by A. Tudor
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
