Everything is Borrowed

I've picked up a few albums lately. A couple new, a couple I've been meaning to grab for a while now... I'll probably write my impressions about them over a few days. Or maybe not.



First up, The Streets Everything is Borrowed.

I've liked The Streets since Original Pirate Material but I've loved The Streets since the second album, A Grand Don't Come For Free, which is easily one of my favorite albums of all time.

The third album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, was more instantly catchy and had some excellent stand-alone songs, but as an overall album left me a little flat.

Everything is Borrowed seems to fall in the "a few good songs, but ultimately disappointing" category.

The range this time around seems to have expanded a lot, with more instrumentation and warmth. The whole album is surprisingly calm, reflective and even soothing. But it also borders on eye-rolling-ly mushy and uplifting. It's especially surprising considering the rambunctious, almost belligerent tone from The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living.

The instrumentation is nice, if not slightly less interesting than the distinctly British electo-beats of previous albums. But I think more bothering is tone of the album overall. A lot of The Streets charm has come from it's rough edges, and this album comes off a little more generic.

There's a handful of tracks that stand out, like the dusty piano-themed I Think I Love You More (Than You Like Me), and The Sherry End which combines a simple funk-ish groove with an overly dramatic chorus, but overall it's a more forgettable album that get's a little too generically heartfelt at times.

The Streets albums usually benefit from repeat listening so I'm curious if it will grow on me a little more.

Either way, it's not terrible by any means. It's a pretty good album that, once again, shows enough promise that it just leaves me wanting more.

I should say that, despite my complaints, I've been listening to it a lot.