In the 1980s, Paul Weller sang about their burned out phone booths and ripped up concrete, while Terry Hall and Specials made eerie serenades to their night-time threat. Twenty years later, we can witness their new sound. They sound a bit like the Phil Daniels bit in Blur's 'Parklife', only they've got a Birmingham accent.

And why not? As UK garage takes on more and more of the lifestyle accessories of the US hop-hop scene, Mike Skinner, the 21-year-old who's the man behind Streets represents a brilliant break with cliché. You won't find him sipping on Kristal, emerging from a limousine, and the 'haters' don't get a look in. His drink is lager, or brandy, he recorded most of this debut album in his mum's house, and his songs depict an often breadline existence. And as such, he's one of the most original British pop voices for years.

What we're dealing with here is an album that owes a lot to garage, but also quite a lot to the all-night garage, too. By turns dark, funny and heartbreaking, the songs on 'Original Pirate Material' are snapshots of ordinary life as a young midlands resident, set to innovative two-step production: tales of love, going out, being skint, getting drunk (there's a lot of this - sometimes it's a surprise Skinner has called himself Streets and not The Coach and Horses), and eating chips. It's Streets by name, and streets by nature, and it's great. - NME Sept 2005