When multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner’s project The Streets released their first LP in 2002, apart from offering a fresh, vibrant sound, its success was also being able to capture the zeitgeist. Over 20 years later, cultural commentary has moved on from “Videos, televisions, PlayStations…” but nostalgia for The Streets remains. With The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light arriving 12 years after their previous fifth album, Computers and Blues, expectations are high for a zeitgeist-capturing sixth LP.
The opener, “Too Much Yayo”, with a cocktail of Dub and dance music, is bursting with energy. Alongside vibrant sounds is sharp, original wit. “He doesn’t like cocaine, but he likes the smell…” will prove to be one of the many quotable lines from this album that contributes to the evolution of musical poetry. The sophomore song, “Money Isn’t Everything”, with a trance intro, builds a new layer of lyrical genius with the line “You keep on talking because I won’t keep on listening”, perfectly depicts the breakdown of communication facing society.
The lyrical and philosophical genius continues on “Not A Good Idea”, when Skinner ponders that “Bad men do what good men dream of”, leads into “Bright Sunny Day”, which weighs on life, religion and atheism, where Mike concludes “I’ll die with my beliefs and still be wrong”. “Bright Sunny Day” is confessional with the line “I got greedy with the talking and careless about the listening”. The haunting soundscape of this track feels as if one is witnessing the last moments of an unfortunate individual.
The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light is adorned with brilliant innovative quotable lyrics that have not been moderately tinkered from social media. The penultimate lively tune, “Troubled Waters”, explores self-consciousness and vulnerability with the following lines: “Outside of the nightclub I don’t know what to do, in the nightclub, it’s too dark to care”, and utopia could arise “If everyone would mind their own business and be themselves”.
Alongside showing lyrical genius, The Streets has grown and evolved their musical output. The LP title track introduces 1920s jazz, “Gonna Hurt When This Is Over”, deftly blends Indian strings, orchestral arrangements and the church organ. “Kick The Can” subtly and quiescently blends in chiptune sounds. The playout track begins with a humbling piano to subsequently reprise 1920s jazz to suddenly cut out, leaving the listener wanting more. To leave a listener wanting more from a 15-track album with no skits is a significant achievement.
The wait for a new The Streets studio album was exceptionally long. Nonetheless, the wait was worth it, and the result is The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light demonstrates the evolution of The Streets both lyrically and musically. When future anthropologists want to study society and culture, The Streets will be referenced for both the noughties and the twenties.
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