Thing is, I quite like it, Computers & Blues. I mean, it's not A Grand Don't Come For Free by any means, but its kinship with the 2002 concept classic is pretty apparent, and I guess Im sort of having my The Streets-period right now. A The Streets period anyhow.
I quite like how his imminent retirement, at least under this alias, as I guess we all know Mike Skinner isn't gonna pack bags at Sainsbury's anytime soon, shines through in a few of the tunes, notably 'Without A Blink' and closer 'Lock The Locks'. The latter is pretty obvious, but the former also deals with the entire ordeal in a nice way, discarding the sentimentality for a new found wildness, and a determination to "go down town without thinking and shout over a drink", echoing the same sort of dilemma as 'When You Wasn't Famous' did on The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.
It's kinda hard not liking 'We Can Never Be Friends', which has the same heart-in-throat touch as the epic 'Dry Your Eyes' off the aforementioned A Grand Don't Come For Free. It's straightforwardness, in passages such as "the future lies in you seeing new guys", which is perhaps the one thing one just doesn't want to picture an ex-girlfriend or -lover doing, is pretty impressive, and once again Mike Skinner proves that he's one of the very few who can pull off such almost embarrassingly direct lyrics without making anyone's toes curl.
And really, there are so many awesome lyrical parts on this album. Such as on 'Roof Of Your Car', where Skinner is ruminating on "electrical implants for the brain that simulate raving sensations", wondering what it might be like if one could "get fucked without hanging his health up. Would this be illegal? Would the Daily Mail rail on it?" And is it evil to have to escape daily life? Pretty big questions indeed. Or the pretty amazing quote: "I'm pretty good at puzzles, but puzzled by people" ('Puzzled By People'), which interacts with Bon Iver (purposedly?) lyrically ("so the story goes"). And then there are tunes like 'Soldiers' (where Skinner might, just might, be referencing to his legendary performance at Roskilde 2008 ("eighty thousand people in a state of rowdy fever, there will never be a sequel to this evening") and 'Outside Inside' which are just epic.
Yeah, you see, there's much to like on this album really. Go fetch fellas, it's a pretty decent case of closing down the office!
