The Streets - Blinded By The Lights
This is my favourite track from The Streets’ second album, which is another concept album that I love. The album as a whole tells a couple of stories: the narrator lose a lot of money and blaming his mates; and the narrator finding, then losing a girlfriend.
This is the track where the audience becomes aware that his girlfriend is cheating on him with one of his mates, but he doesn’t yet know it. The narrator is too fucked on booze and pills to realise what’s going on. He’s in a club, and is quite literally blinded by the lights.
The track itself is a real slow-burner, very mellow and quite haunting. There’s a few Britishisms which take a couple of listens to understand, but it’s worth it.
I know a lot of people don’t rate Mike Skinner but beyond the bullshit there is an urban poet. I remember when Let’s Push Things Forward came out and thinking ‘What IS this? This is totally new.” They were part of that really early grime scene that felt like rap music with British accents. And the Britishisms are the best thing of all. I love that there are words and little phrases that you only truly understand if you’re British. You can’t learn it. You just know it.
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