The first time people heard The Streets' Mercury Prize-nominated debut Original Pirate Material, they couldn't make their minds up whether the person making this music was black or white, from London or the Midlands, deadly serious or a totally joker. We know who Mike Skinner is now (or at least we thought we knew). So for him to have come up with a record which surprises and delights the listener as much as everything is borrowed is, if anything, an even more impressive achievement.



everything is borrowed finds Mike not only rediscovering his old irrepressible buoyancy but sailing away on that trademark stop-start lyrical flow to waters no-one else has ever visited.