English rapper Mike Skinner, a.k.a. The Streets, announced on Monday that he intended to give away three new songs via Twitter this week. "I can’t be bothered with all this trying to sell you music," he wrote. "It wastes valuable time." Skinner began making good on his promise yesterday, tweeting a link to a tune called "I Love My Phone" — which is, yes, an examination of Skinner’s complicated relationship with his cell phone. Feeling "addicted to the little thing that rings/like a torch in the dark, reading short thoughts," he muses aloud: "How would I survive without my outside line to the doubting life being in the inside lining of my trousers tonight?"
It’s a logical follow-up to last year’s excellent everything is borrowed, which took Skinner’s typical witty observations on daily life in a more philosophical direction. Will Skinner continue with his free-music plan for the week? Unclear, since he currently appears to be sitting in a pub and tweeting photographs of beer — both activities which I fully support, for the record. But I hope Skinner has got two more free tunes of equal quality coming up. In the meantime, go download "I Love My Phone" now and let us know if you’re digging it as much as I am.
UPDATE: Not only did Skinner link to a second free song, "Trust Me," on Twitter this afternoon (it’s pretty good!), he then managed to get "BACK IN THE PUB WITHIN 2 HOURS." Well played. Tomorrow, round three?
More from EW’s Music Mix:
Day26: Who’s buying the Making the Band 4 band’s new album?
iTunes’ Tuesday freebies: Ida Maria, Cage the Elephant
Jamie Foxx’s Miley Cyrus tirade on Sirius: Too much?
This song is fabulous. The production values step up with every song he releases, but he’s got a bit of a grime vibe going as well. Loving it. Although I curse you all at EW, because you’ve inspired me to download Everything is Borrowed. I cannot keep spending money at iTunes! The internet is an evil thing for those with no willpower…