The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Lightrelease date: Oct. 13, 2023
format: digital (15 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Mike Skinner
label: Rhino UK - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Too Much Yayo" - 2. "Money Isn't Everything" - 5. "Shake Hands With Shadows" - 6. "Not a Good Idea" - 8. "The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light" - 10. "Gonna Hurt When This Is Over" - 11. "Kick the Can" - 12. "Each Day Gives" - 15. "Good Old Daze"
6th studio album by The Streets following nearly 13 years after Computers and Blues (Feb. 2011) and most recently the mixtape album None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive (Jul. 2020) is a warm welcome back to one of Britain's most charismatic hip hop artists of the new millennium. All tracks except the title track, co-composed with Virginia Liston, are composed, written, arranged, produced and mixed by Skinner himself. Actually, the album appears to have been made on the basis of a full-length feature film (baring the same title) written by Skinner over nearly a full decade, and which has also premiered by now. Compared to his 2020 mixtape album this one doesn't include a long list of featuring artists, although Kevin Mark Trail contributes with vocals on seven tracks (he also performed on the 2002 debut as well as on the 2011 album by The Streets), Robert Harvey (of The Music, The D.O.T., Kasabian) features on two, and Laura Vane on one.
More than a decade has passed by, and Skinner has been involved in other projects, so I guess you would expect one of two scenarios: The Streets would take up the batton in a predicted pace and with the inclusion of Skinner's ear for hooks and samples - just like we've come to know him - or, you'd see him from a new perspective utilizing his time with other music projects to expand the musical universe of his most famous brain child. And Skinner only remains true to the spirit, the sound and the soundscape of The Streets, as he simply appears to move forward from whatever position he left his project in. That both makes it very comfortable without having to adjust to a new-found sound and at the same time a tee bit old-school. It does sound like music that should've been released a decade earlier, but then: so what? It wasn't! First and foremost it's nice to have him back in this role, and The Darker the Shadow... won't disturb anyones impression of this project, though I guess some would've wished more progression. Comparing with his fifth studio album I think the most aparent difference is a reluctance to over-arrange songs and stick to some kind of simplicity. The album runs for a total of 47 minutes, and all songs vary little in running time - going from 2:10 to 3:54 minutes they're all composed within a strict matrice of A, B, and C pieces held together with a bridge or two with extremely tight compository differences. That said, he still throws in samples and various stylistic inputs to colour and to make it a digestible treat. The skills remain intact. Some tracks stick out but as a whole it does feel a bit like going through the motions by replicating, duplicating, and by reminding us of his earlier beats. It's not that it doesn't work, 'cause it adds to the repertoire - there's. just. not. a lot. of. new. strengths. being revealed here. Aaaand that said, what really works here is Skinner's artistic approach with words, sentences - i.e. his rhyming to music. That's intact, or perfectly intact actually, and then it doesn't make things worse that you actually have some living experience. His gift in telling everyday life in the context of themes is point on - and we've missed that.
It's nice, it's good, and it's nearly great. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment is that the album actually feels like a real The Streets album to be referred to and compared with the five previvious studio albums. It may not be one of his three best, but it's close to his releases.
Recommended.
