I purchased The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free four weeks ago.
I can't say I was elated, but I most certainly was not disappointed. All the tracks do indeed sound looser, more conversational, but in this aspect I thought that it lost some of it's catchiness. For example, "It was supposed to be so easy...", the first song on the album, is an awesome introduction to the story (Did I not mention that? The whole album is a story. Yeah, British rap concept album. Go figure.), but it's hard to get into at first. I can say the same thing about at least two other tracks, namely "Lights are blinding my eyes" and "Such a twat".
However, when Mike makes a catchy beat, he rocks it throughout the entire song. "Not addicted" stands out as one of my favourite Streets tracks to date. Its high-tuned bass riff is, pardon the pun, but addicting. "Well be in", track 2, starts out as a nice slow jam, and "Fit but you know it"'s cheesy ultra-simplistic guitar riffs can't help but make one bob their head along. Even the closing tracks are nice and smooth.
Not to diss on Original Pirate Material. OPM is overall a more listenable disc, which really doesn't have a bad track on it. Everything on OPM is composed just right, every beat sounds natural, and the lyrics sound much more like I would envision a rap/garage album to sound. That, and you can't top The Irony Of It All. Except with Don't Mug Yourself. Which can be topped with Would you be There?. All on the same album.
Overall, A Grand Don't Come For Free is a great CD, but isn't quite up to the same calibur as OPM.
Ah, the GA forums... I missed thy open spaces for ranting and pretending I'm an expert.