Original Pirate Material

“I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoint/But this ain’t your typical Garage joint,” mumbles Mike Skinner amid the snaking horns of “Let’s Push Things Forward”. You can say that again. Brimming with urgent strings (“Turn the Page”), beer-splashed examinations of modern masculinity (“The Irony of It All”) and inimitable half-rapped vignettes (“Don’t Mug Yourself”), the Brummie musician’s debut dares to imbue 2-step with romance, ambition and cinematic scope. And in “Weak Become Heroes”—a vivid, piano-driven dispatch from the scrum of a rave—it offers a potent, evocative generational anthem.