Not bad, but unspectacular.

First the good news: Mike Skinner invents on his fourth album already (almost) from scratch. Less good is for those fans who celebrated his original sound for its independence - to the latter including myself. Of course it's nice if an artist does not album after album travels the same style. In the case of The Streets, it would perhaps have been better, however. So has become "Everything Is Borrowed" a good piece of music, that definitely will please many. I would nevertheless like to briefly explain what has disappointed me in it.

The Beats: Instead of just producing digital, Skinner made known his ideas to implement time of session musicians, singers etc.. On the one hand, in theory a clear progress. However, listen to what came out here, in practice, not so cool like the electronic dance music, which he pulled out of his computer years ago. So the 2Step- and hip hop grooves days gone soft now a mixture of funk, soul, jazz and pop. Here was apparently paid more attention to mass appeal than ever before.

Vocals: Mike had from the outset a very wayward idea of ​​how you raps. His microphone performance sounded less like rap, but rather by a thoughtful soliloquy on (and was mostly slightly off-beat). Therefore especially rap fans accused him of not having a flow. I have seen the always different - just for that is the best flow ever been, because he was highly innovative and made sure that one really listens. Also from this Style The Streets has now adopted. Instead, he tried to rap clock accuracy, which ultimately everyone does. In this discipline, he can do it again no match for the "real" rappers. The lyrics are seemingly no longer gripped so directly from life, it is more philosophized.

Despite everything, the album as a whole is worth listening to, even if getting used to, especially for fans. It contains fast party numbers including sing-along chorus, melancholic ballads and some very avant-garde title. With UK garage that has, however, become so much to do, as I do. With German folk music