The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living

As ever, though, the music here is thoroughly individual and frequently hilarious: the Mission Impossible-tinged "Hotel Expressionism" sees trashing a room raised to the status of artform, while the reflective "Two Nations"--an open letter to deceased rapper Notorious BIG--sees Skinner swell with pride as he recalls the UK giving America the legacy of John Lennon, "Even though you shot him as well". Meanwhile, two gospel tracks, "Never Went To Church" and "All Goes Out The Window", make a bid to be this album's "Dry Your Eyes".

All in all, it's Skinner's most bitty, fractured album so far--not quite the gobsmacking state-of-the-nation address of 2002's Original Pirate Material and lacking the immersive narrative of A Grand Don't Come For Free--but no one makes a record like Mike Skinner makes a record, and even going out of his head, he's never less than entertaining.--Louis Pattison