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On her latest record It's Not Me, It's You, British pop bad-girl
Lily Allen spends almost the entire record proving just that.
Building on the sweet foundation she laid on her debut Alright,
Still, Lily sings about everything from the addiction problems
of modern civilization to her own issues with a lover who can't seem
to satisfy her, all with the darling frankness for which she's become
so well known. Lead single "The Fear" is the jaded continuation
of songs like "Smile" and "Not Big" as Allen points
out, "I want to be rich and I want lots of money/I don't care
about clever I don't care about funny/I want lots of clothes and fuckloads
of diamonds/I heard people die while trying to find them…"
Her cheeky lyrics ring with a modicum of youthful sincerity from her
experiences in the limelight and all the celebrity bull that she's
had to deal with over the past couple of years. She seems to have
come out of all that fine, suicide scares and all, and continued to
give the world some fantastic music. She experiments with a formerly
untried sound on the cowboy-twang of "Not Fair" as she espouses
her opinions on the greatest guy in the world who is just no good
in the sack. Seems like it would be a ridiculous and banal song, but
Allen gives the simplest of ridiculousnesses her lyrical brilliance
and comes out a winner. "22" is a glimpse into the deeper,
darker regions of Allen's soul as she sings about a girl who approaches
the end of her twenties and has nothing really going on with her life
and how the world judges someone like that. It's a frighteningly revealing
song, giving another glimpse into the young psyche of a tormented
and thoughtful mind. The easy 80's sounding electronic beats and strings
of "I Could Say" sound like they were lifted off of a Camouflage
record, but the lyrical bite is pure Lily Allen, filled with insight
and a keen self-hatred that only the enlightened share. The music
on It's Not Me, It's You runs the gamut from glittering pop,
to four-on-the-floor dance music, to the aforementioned country, and
even a bit of gospel, showing that Allen is not content to sit comfortably
in one style of music, but rather adapt to any sound and make it her
very own. Perhaps Lily Allen's music will finally bridge the generation
gap, bringing together the kids who want danceable and lively tunes
and the older folks who crave lyrical substance in their beautiful
music. One can only hope.
-L. Keane
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