AFTER her debut album Alive, Still sold 2,600,000 copies worldwide, British alternative singer-songwriter Lily Allen announced that she was moving in a “new direction“ on her upcoming record. And proved it she did with this second studio album, It’s Not Me, It’s You.
The album begins with Everyone’s At It — with the “it” here being drugs. The song revolves about the hypocrisy surrounding drugs. “Why can’t we all just be honest; admit to ourselves that everyone’s on it?“
This is swiftly followed by the danceable and slightly trancey part admission, part brag, part apocalyptic The Fear. The song picks at small-minded indulgences and the fickleness of fame; sticking out of a flood of soft synths.
Indeed, no taboo is left untouched by Allen. The inventively bluegrass-infused It’s Not Fair concerns itself with the sexual shortcomings of an otherwise perfect boyfriend.
I Could Say begins with emotive piano chords and sees the singer returning to the theme of duff relationships, while 22 is a unkind ditty about pretty women who — nearing 30 and single — find that they are worthless to society.
Allen’s desire to be taken seriously has led her to write a couple of songs about current affairs.
A one-track summing-up of the charm that is Lily Allen: Impolite truths in the voice of an angel.
On Chinese, Allen sings of her delight at tucking into beans on toast with a lover, conjuring up a world in which other girls are taller and prettier, but a Chinese takeaway and a cup of tea can soothe most of life’s problems .
He Wasn’t There could be about any number of unlikely male heroes who turned out to be sheep in wolves’ clothing, or about her dad’s lack of parental responsibility, while still calling him her hero. It’s fascinating how the song normalises her old man back into the traditional father-daughter narrative that she’s claimed she craved as a child
The title track, It’s Not Me, It’s You, taps into exactly what fans both want and expect to hear. Even if they’re still none the wiser as to what’s really behind those headlines.
Fans of the MySpace queen shouldn’t be fazed if some songs are more download-worthy than others. The high points on It’s Not Me, It’s You are enough to boost Allen’s reputation as one of our most compelling pop stars. — NST
No comments:
Post a Comment