The Streets - When You Wasn't Famous

Mike Skinner's back and he's famous! So while synths plinky-plink and drumrolls rattle, he sings about meeting popstars, dating popstars, doing popstars. This is fair enough; our boy's storytelling gifts should survive the transition from working-class vignettes to celebrity hijinks. And they do. But despite the The Streets' familiar wryness, his casual honesty, the beautifully clumsy scansion, When You Wasn't Famous never quite clicks. I keep getting stuck on the vocal strain of the chorus, the droop of its rhymes. It's a chorus that would sound better as a ringtone, and not even the track's final line, glorious and glib, is enough to redeem it. [Sean Michaels]