MIKE Skinner has an incredible knack for summing up an everyday experience in a few carefully chosen words.

Blending garage, hip-hop, house and pretty much every genre of note, on tracks like Weak Become Heroes Mr Skinner managed to reach out to an entire generation of clubbers.

So what does Britain's urban poet laureate write about when his experiences are no longer shared by the country's youth?

Having circumnavigated the problem by releasing a themed album, A Grand Don't Come For Free, now it appears Skinner is back to basics.

It's an inauspicious start with ode to paranoia Pranged and War of the Sexes and All Goes Out The Window are spoilt by crooning pal Leo the Lion.

By track five only the title track has lived up to expectations - so it's a relief when Memento Mori sparks the album into life with a brilliant beat and a humorous look at the star's new-found riches.

Tales of con jobs and the drawbacks of sleeping with celebs lead into this album's Dry Your Eyes, a touching nod to Skinner's departed dad called Never Went To Church.

Predictable? Not when the gloriously frenetic keyboard of Hotel Expressionism and the uncompromising Mitchell Brothers arrive.

And when the insightful analysis of American/English culture on Two Nations hits home, it becomes clear that the poet is definitely still in residence.