But this is just another case of female stopping play in an otherwise total result of a holiday

Mike Skinner and I have a lot in common. Our cell phones get terrible reception. Sometimes
we find out we don't have money when we go to the ATM. Little errands like returning DVD's can really screw up our day.

There are two big things that separate us, though, (1) I've never lost $1,000 inside a television set and (2) if I had, I wouldn't have written a concept album about it.

But I'm glad Mike did.

Mike Skinner is better known as The Streets and his album A Grand Don't Come For Free is today's selection from Declan. It was released May 18, 2004 and was one of my favorite albums of the year. An album all about mundane stresses and roller coaster relationships.

It's really hard to describe what The Streets sound like. To call it British rap doesn't really do it justice. You should just go to their web site and check it out. The whole thing sounds fairly comical at first but Mike Skinner's heart is right there under the surface and you can hear it.

Of course, to truly understand The Streets it helps if you speak English. No, not that English they speak in America, the crazy slangy English they speak in Britain. Luckily I'm bilingual so I know what he's talking about when he uses words like:

snog
chuffed
bird
pull
geezer
keen

It's a good skill to have whether you use it for The Streets albums or Harry Potter books.

Listening to A Grand Don't Come For Free is like taking a little journey through Mike Skinner's life. There's lots of partying and fighting and other unwholesome activities but it's a pretty fun trip.