The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed

The philosophy behind this track is that, as the chorus tells us, everything bar love is borrowed. Funnily enough it is borrowed time on which Mike Skinner’s music career has been living on since just after ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ when his everyday man persona was ditched for whining celebrity nonsense. Furthermore this song has very little chance of rejuvenating his dwindling fanbase due to Mike trying to recover ‘Mr. Everyday’ and preach philosophical claptrap at the same time. The end result is of some bloke talking at you whilst elevator music plays just out of earshot.

We can say however that Skinner’s heart is in the right place with this, the song just doesn’t go anywhere, and a lot of time of spoken word is lost to seemingly little being said. On top of this the backing to Mike’s monologue is boring. The nearest comparison is a church going ‘At The River’, and like it, ‘Everything Is Borrowed’ will be appropriated by every other TV advert or programme and used as background music in shopping centers wherever possible. It’s sad that this is the fate Mike Skinner has chosen for himself.

“Time will say nothing but ‘I told you so’” is the closing line for this track, mirroring what his critics doubtlessly said years ago. Unless something improves then they will be proven right.