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The Streets' New Album: First Listen!

On 15 September, Mike Skinner unleashes one of the year's most anticipated albums.

Everything Is Borrowed by The Streets has been shrouded in secrecy for over two years, but zootoday.com can give you an exclusive track-by-track run-down!

1. Everything Is Borrowed
The perfect opener. An upbeat, airy celebration of when the little things fall into place. Also boasts what sounds like an entire orchestra condensed into a mobile phone.

2. Heaven For The Weather
A happy hardcore keyboard line bounces over a chanted, church-like chorus. Confirms Skinner has shaken off that paranoid edge which suffocated his last album The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.

3. I Love You More (Than You Like Me)
A jazzy paino stroll detailing some textbook unrequited love. Contains the utterly brilliant line: "I drew a drawing of you after the last time I saw... it was absolutely shit, I'm awful at drawing."

4. The Way Of The Dodo
The weakest song on the album, despite the manic, rapid-fire Skinner rapping. A clumsy environmental call-to-arms that misses by a mile.

5. On The Flip Of A Coin
Perfectly shows off the new mature feel and sounds like an old Beatles track. Delicate guitars, violins, and shows off one of the album's "mini-film script"-style lyrics.

6. On The Edge Of A Cliff
Probably our favourite. Mike explains how he was - literally - talked down from a cliff by a stranger's wise words while ultra-smooth trumpets and some squalling guitar heroics combine for what should be the feel-good hit of 2008. Has to be a single.

7. Never Give In
Skinner described this as his "sexy song" and maybe it'll register stronger with girls than it did us. An off-kilter R'n'b track emphasising the importance of persistence in the pursuit of the opposite sex.

8. The Sherry End
A jaunty street-funk effort to play before a night out with your mates. Champions the value of friends, private jokes, pissed-up nights out everything in between.

9. Alleged Legends
The album gets seriously deep analysing the rights and wrongs of modern religion. Wait! Come back! Despite its worthiness, it's an impressively dark thought-provoker.

10. Strongest Person I Know
So incredibly soppy, it makes Dry Your Eyes feel like a Metallica bone-shaker. A harp (yes, harp) and oboe gently ghost over a heart-felt, half-spoken, half-sung tribute to Mike's mum. Try not welling up a bit: it's impossible.

11. The Escapist
Released as a free digital single (head over to www.the-streets.co.uk), this epic set-closer was originally penned to accompany a prison-break climax to a film, but shelved after Skinner refused to actually make it about a prison. Soaring, life-affirming and superb.

VERDICT: There's not a raft of obvious singles or street anthems, but this could remembered as Skinner's definitive, classic album. He's grown-up and so have The Streets. Brilliant.

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