You remember this, from approximately 200 weeks ago, right? I made an Excel spreadsheet, and I read through every RC review over the past 200 weeks, marking down every non-RC artist that was mentioned in each review. The algorithm then uses those counts to choose an album for us. The list is reproduced three times, each in a different order—one grouped by artists mentioned, one grouped by author who made mentions, and one grouped by albums that elicited the mention of another artist. For shits and giggles, the fourth group is a full list of all the artist mentions from the past 400 weeks.
During Weeks 399 and 400, we'll be covering the two artists that were mentioned those most since circa Thanksgiving 2022 (Eminem and Lana Del Rey, respectively). Like last time, I didn't include any artist who has already been covered or has since been covered by Record Club (or the Beatles, who aren't eligible until Week 500). I didn't include any artist who was involved in the making of that album (a feature, a backing musician, a production or writing credit, etc.). And I didn't include anyone who I'd just rather not involve in this club for "cancel culture" related reasons (which is not a rule, but a suggestion, and since I was making the damn Excel spreadsheet, I took my own suggestion).
For Weeks 397 and 398, I had our two most consistent Record Club members (Sunny and Nate) choose artists from the Algorithm, and then pick an album from that artist. Which, true, isn't in the spirit of what an "algorithm" is supposed to do, but I'd argue that algorithms can suck my fucking dick, and fuck any algorithm when it's involved in making music choices. You think I'm gonna enjoy reviewing a fucking Lana Del Rey album in three weeks? Fuck no. So for a couple weeks, let's take the power back, and let the people choose the albums.
Anyways, this is just a fun little way to get some Record Club picks in here, especially in the aftermath of our RC Summer Homework project. Hope you enjoy the tunes, and as always, please let us know what you think.
NATE'S PITCH: "Have you not enjoyed the experience of driving around this town? Would you not like to take a spin down Allison Road? I don't know about the second one because I don't think it's on this album. You found about me, as it were. Anyway, listen to it."
We are tracking and counting down every week from here on out till Record Club Week 420. We started this countdown 69 weeks out. During Record Club Week 420, we will be covering Donny Most by the esteemed Happy Days virgin Donny Most. The goal for Week 420 of Record Club is that it will feature 69 reviews from 69 different people.
THIS WEEK: We are 23 weeks away from Week 420.
Anyways, this is just a fun little way to get some Record Club picks in here, especially in the aftermath of our RC Summer Homework project. Hope you enjoy the tunes, and as always, please let us know what you think.
Record Club:
WEEK 397 — September 6-12, 2026
A Grand Don't Come for Free
by the Streets
LISTEN:
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PICKED BY NATE AND THE RC ALGORITHM
JOE'S RESPONSE: "Am I going crazy, or did you pick the Streets album? And Sunny picked Gin Blossoms? I choose to view everything you do as a bit."
NATE'S PITCH, REVISED: "Nah, I probably didn't read it right. Keep this all in. Anyway: the Streets! Perhaps the worst 'great' album I've ever heard, in that its sum so far outstrips its parts. Perfect small story in that it can become an entire worldview. Let us pray."
THE ALGORITHM EXPLANATION: I asked Nate and Sunny to choose an artist (and an eligible album from that artist) from the RC Algorithm, but limited it to artists that were only mentioned once in the last 200 weeks of RC reviews. I also asked that they refrain from choosing artists that were mentioned in a Joe review or a Nate review or a Sunny review, but this was too high of an ask, so we're getting an artist that I (Joe) mentioned in my review for Famoe's 16Bars Rap-Blog EP. It's good to add Famoe back into the fold, I wonder what he's up to? Though this "review" was actually my annual year-end ranking of that year's RC albums, and the Streets were offhandedly mentioned in the blurb about Jamie T's Panic Prevention. (For how I got to be writing about the Streets in the first place, see "Mentions on the Blog" below.)
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ALBUM DETAILS
GENRE: Hip hop, UK garage
RELEASED: May 10, 2004
LENGTH: 50:36
TRACKLIST:
- It Was Supposed to Be So Easy
- Could Well Be In
- Not Addicted
- Blinded by the Lights
- Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
- Get Out of My House (ft. MC C-Mone)
- Fit but You Know It
- Such a Twat
- What Is He Thinking? (ft. Wayney G)
- Dry Your Eyes
- Empty Cans
LYRICS: Genius.com
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ARTIST DETAILS
PRONOUNS: he/him/his
ABOUT: The Streets is the moniker of Mike Skinner, who was born on November 27, 1978, in Barnet, London, England. The Streets is one of those music projects/bands that consists solely of one member. I suppose you could use plural pronouns for the Streets, even though it's mostly one person. Plus, there are contributors, as there would be on any rap album. But the Streets is basically just Mike Skinner. He started the project in his teens, but started releasing music in the early aughts. The Streets were commercially successful in the UK (and not in the U.S., for the most part), with five songs that hit the UK Top 40 (two from this album), including one number one ("Dry Your Eyes," also from this album). The Streets is considered an artist that greatly shaped the idea of UK rap, and his first two albums especially have been highly influential within the hip hop, garage (pronounced "GAR-idge"), and grime music genres. Mike Skinner retired the moniker in 2011, but brought it back in 2017, and is ostensibly working under the moniker currently.
DISCOGRAPHY: The Streets have six albums total. This is their second. The first was Original Pirate Material. 2011's Computer and Blues was the last one before the hiatus, but after coming back, they have released one more album, 2023's The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light. This doesn't include three mixtapes, and two EPs (a 2022 EP is called Brexit at Tiffany's).
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ADDITIONAL INFO
READING SOME SHIT: a 2020 retrospective that includes some details about the story within this album
WATCHING SOME SHIT: "Empty Cans" live, earlier this year
RECORD CLUB CONNECTIONS: Are we considering this album a hip hop opera? ("Hip-hopera" nope nope, can't say it, too cringe.) Somewhere along the line, we'll have to distinguish between a "[genre] opera" and a "concept album." Feels like a square/rectangle thing. A concept album has a shtick, all the songs are related thematically in some way, and an opera has a shtick, and that shtick is that the album tells one cohesive story over the course of the entire tracklist. I haven't done a good job of keeping track of "concept albums" over RC's history, but I think we can safely say that this is the fourth "opera," unless I'm forgetting something (usually am—it's been seven and a half years!). This album follows The Family Tree: The Roots, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, and Year of the Goat.
I saw that Tame Impala was on one of the Streets' mixtapes at one point. Most of the other collaborators in this discography are UK artists I've never heard of, though. Even on the list of UK number-one hits, the songs topping the charts around the time "Dry Your Eyes" did is a healthy mix of artists that everyone knows and artists that only British people know. Britney Spears was the only RC alumnus to hit #1 in 2004 too (though the 2004 version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" hit #1 at the end of that year, and that single involves contributions from Gorillaz and Radiohead).
The Other Streets: Lake Street Dive, Before These Crowded Streets, Street Worms, Street Love, and the Bleecker Street Boys.
The Other Streets: Lake Street Dive, Before These Crowded Streets, Street Worms, Street Love, and the Bleecker Street Boys.
The Other Thes: the National, the Raconteurs, the Rolling Stones, the Beths, the Menzingers, the Highwomen, the Districts, the Chicks, the Killers, the Feelies, the War on Drugs, the Arrogant Sons of Bitches, the Tough Alliance, the Black Keys, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, the Beach Boys, the Roots, the Beaches, the Velvet Underground, the Mountain Goats, the New Year, the Doors, the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, the Cryptkeeper, the Wolfe Tones, the Walkmen, the Stone Roses, the Jazz June, and the Strokes.
MENTIONS ON THE BLOG: When I search for "streets" using the Blogger search tool, I get 235 results. It's possible that more than one of those is referring the UK hip hop artist the Streets. The only one that I can think of off the top of my head as actually about this artist, though, is Fisher's selection of a Streets song for Summer Song Challenge on Day 59. At the end of that week, I said that I liked the song enough that I wanted to explore this artist, which eventually led me to Original Pirate Material. That album made it to my Top Non-2023 Albums I Heard for the First Time list in 2023 (that's a bangin' list, all hits back in 2023, goddamn). But I never moved past that album, so I'm excited for the opportunity to do so this week!
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RECORD CLUB ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
This week's discography dive album: Remember by Rusted Root
This week's follow-up album: The Mountain by Gorillaz and Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally by Harry Styles, maybe more
This week's keeping up album (probably): Still nothing I'm too interested in downloading, so I'll keep the focus on the follow-up albums, at least until the new Carly Rae Jepsen drops in a couple weeks.
Listen with us! Keep your favorite Record Club artists in the rotation!
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COUNTDOWN:
69 Weeks Until Week 420
 |
| about to cross the STREET |
We are tracking and counting down every week from here on out till Record Club Week 420. We started this countdown 69 weeks out. During Record Club Week 420, we will be covering Donny Most by the esteemed Happy Days virgin Donny Most. The goal for Week 420 of Record Club is that it will feature 69 reviews from 69 different people.
THIS WEEK: We are 23 weeks away from Week 420.
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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
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