Albums

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

Luke Hannaford 11/02/2009

Rating: 4/5

So what is all the hype about Lily Allen then? After listening to The Fear, which has been at number 1 in the charts for awhile now since its release, it's quite ironic how it sounds like she is practically singing about herself after the many years of flashing her stuff to the tabloids, by accident of course *wink wink* . She is certainly 'on to a winner'. Her new album It's Not Me, It's You has a different approach to it than her debut album, Alright Still. Lily having said herself “I think I've grown up a bit as a person and I hope it reflects that.” She has definitely become a better songwriter and singer since then.

The opening song Everyone's At It is about today's problems with drugs with its catchy lyrics and synthpop style. The album is co produced with Greg Kurstin who also produced Lily's debut album which sold over 2.5 Million copies. The third track Not Fair ultimately strays away from her normal stuff adding a bit of western to the synthpop genre. Not that I think you'll be hearing this at many line-dancing clubs. Still Lily retains the grittiness about the ups and downs in life and the happenings in today's celebrity culture, with the occasional swearing in her songs which works well lyrically at getting her message across, such as Fuck You one of her songs on the album. I Could Say is a nicely piano-led song soft crisp vocals which is once again about the downsides to relationships, like Smile one of Lily's older memorable songs and reached number 1 in the UK charts in 2006. Although I myself am not too keen on songs with swearing in I do like it how Lily incorporates it into her songs.

Overall the album is a new experience for Lily fans. While many may have not liked her previous album musically with the catchy tunes and choruses you have to give her new album a chance. And I don't think Kate Nash can compare to Lily right now. Even if I didn't listen to Lily I would rather hear her than Nash singing about toiletry items.

An honest down to earth person, yes she has been in the media's attention a lot. But can anyone else do a Lily better than she can? Okay so she didn't do so well at being a television presenter and you may think she only became famous because of her parents Keith Allen and Alison Owen and the success she had via MySpace. But she has come a long way since her debut album. Although this may be a biased review since I am a fully pledged Lily fan myself, I would tell anyone to give It's Not Me, It's You a listen even if they haven't liked her previous stuff. While retaining the Lilyness, musically the songs sound different from that of her ska-pop debut album.