I was 22 when Original Pirate Material came out, less than a year younger than its creator, Mike Skinner. The world he spoke-sang of in that pensive, blunt tone of his was one I recognised from my college years in the sweat-lined clubs of Leeds. “The night slowly fades and goes slow motion/ All the commotion becomes floating emotions,” he riffed over the piano house loop of “Weak Become Heroes.” The sheer thrill of being seen like that had me immediately enamoured.

At the time, Britain was deep in the era of superstar DJs and superclubs. Dance music’s staunchly counterculture status had started to crack under the weight of capitalism’s greedy paws. Record stores were filled with compilation CDs for every club-related situation, invariably decorated in garish illustrations of a glam girl-about-town or a moody shot of an upside down light bulb.

Skinner had no time for such flattened ideas of nightlife. His songs celebrated the spectrum of intimate, transient feelings that come from dancing in a room full of strangers, connected in unspoken agreement: We’re in this moment together. That sensation was set in motion by the ascending strings of album opener “Turn The Page,” which read like the warm rush of coming up on ecstasy. There was also “Has It Come To This?” with its homespun take on the skippy 2-step garage that had been dominating the charts, the almost-funeral march of “Stay Positive” with its wise-beyond-its-years narrative, and the mournful “It’s Too Late,” which no doubt soundtracked many a regret-soaked comedown.

I was always more interested in Skinner’s rave ballads than his lad anthems, layered and poetic though they are. I appreciated the wink in his delivery, but they weren’t made for me: they were geared towards a generation of young men battling within the rigid limitations of masculinity. On later albums, he would immerse himself more fully in that demographic, and I couldn’t help feeling a little abandoned. I missed the tenderness and curiosity of the shiny eyed kid savoring visions of a fleeting utopia.