Review:

on 2011-02-20 CharlesMartel Said:

Lily Allen was something of a novelty when she came out. She dressed like a 50's prom queen, nervous and, by the standards of today's stick insect stars, slightly chubby. She waved her arms like a four-year old child asked to say please to be given the sweet. She sang in this off-key voice which was redolent of the faux-cockney, all droppin' yer 'aitches and stopping yer glo' 'als. And "Smile" was such a happy tune, how could anyone not like it? Yes, it certainly did make you smi-i-ile.

But then you start to look behind the music and realise that there really is something there to give you enough pauses for reflection about this new style, this new brightness in British pop music. Her father is a well-known English comedian-actor of the typical wide-boy smug bastard genre of British entertainment. Before long she was falling out of Mayfair nightclubs pissed out of her head. The she fell out with paparazzi who tried to snap her falling out of clubs pissed out of her head. Then she fell out with someone in Girls Aloud and by now the press was lapping it up. If her antics hadn't been overshadowed by the train wreck of a life that belongs to that other London-based nouveau celebrity, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen would have been all over the tabloids and the gossip rags. Next she makes up with whoever it was from Girls Aloud and goes for the sympathy vote - a crisis over her weight and a very public miscarriage (my heart goes out to her but who bleats this sort of thing over the pages of trash rags anyway). Now she's got her own TV show.

If you haven't got it by now, you probably haven't figured out how the British music business works. Lily Allen is nothing new. The packaging and the marketing may be different, but Lily Allen is just another creation from the fevered minds of the A&R men; just another churned out wannabe who's only something because her daddy knows that bigwig who works for EMI. Don't let the supposed indie status of her Regal label fool you - Regal is a subsidiary of EMI and Columbia in the US. Lily Allen is another piece of plastic pop churned out for the masses to lap up and want to emulate.

This album contains four singles which have been released at various times. With the exception of "Smile" none of them have had much impact, but already she is labelled a 'star'. The remaining seven on "Alright. Still" only haven't been released yet because they still contain Lily's songwriter's pseudo-chavette mutterings on booze, being picked up and bein' a bit lairy, you know what I mean, all spiced with a smattering of four-letter words which Mummy and Daddy want Suzie to know are spoken only by people who are not very nice. Still, like the albums put out in the sixties by a lot of commercial labels, this is just a collection of has-been and wanna-be singles. All of them follow the same format as "Smile" - mockney rapping verses with silly little girlie voice refrains over a syncopated dance-along musical background which has no distinguishing features whatsoever.

The game is up, Ms Allen. Your TV chat show has been rumbled as a pile of shit. Your "I'm quitting this tour of America to work on a new album" line has been derided for the lie that it is. There are more impressive people falling pissed out of nightclubs than you. And your music has passed its sell-by date.

OK people, move along. There's nothing new here for you.
Rating: 1/10

Review:

on 2007-07-27 blackxdan Said:

From what I have heard of Lily Allen, I like her style a lot. Her lyrics are clever and made me smile. Her songs are very upbeat, and it is very easy to get into her music. She has become an instant hit with the masses, and has attracted enough meda atention to last her long enough to be remembered. I think she has something special going on here with this debut album. She continues to get hit after hit, and have left her fans wanting more. Despite the small road bumps and negative attention she has gotten, i think she will do fine and make the rest of her fans happy when she releases her sophomore debut album. Even though the styles between Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse is different, if you like one, you will probably like the other.
Rating: 7/10

Review:

on 2007-03-12 dscanland Said:

I've actually recently gotten into Lily Allen as well. I'll be posting a review soon. If you like The Streets then you should dig Lily Allen. She's got the same charisma as Mike Skinner.
Rating: 7/10

Review:

on 2007-03-10 sublogic Said:

When It comes to the Lily Allen album, Alright, Still, what you get is the album Gwen Stefani and Fergie will be trying to make for the rest of their careers. I know Debbie Harry’s not dead, but I’m pretty sure Ms. Allen is her reincarnation. At 21 with a wonderful sense of humor, you get a mix of content and temperament that is hilarious, very self aware, and best of all surprisingly mature. Reggae or rocksteady-infused pop is the underlining theme of the album’s sound. “Smile” is about her laughing at the man that dumped her, and him wanting to get back with her, all the while she mockingly sings “La, la, la’s” in the background. “Knock Em Out” narrates the end of the night goings on, as she deflects unwanted advances. “LDN” has a great sunny day groove in which she flips it and sings about riding through her town and seeing violent crimes and crack-whores. On “Not Big” she gets personal and insults some dudes junk for the entirety of the song. It’s young Ms. Allen’s humorous story-telling abilities that are the highlight of the album. Scratch the comment above, she’s more like the secret love child of Slick Rick and Debbie Harry. The production is energetic and vibrant and contributors include the talented Mark Ronson and Greg Kurstin of……..wait for it……..Gwen Stefani fame. The only real “down-tempo” song is “Littlest Things”, a sweet little ballad that you might expect from her if you read her bio and a obvious single. The last track, “Alfie”, sounds like a freaking merry-go-round, but she’s talking about her slacker-ass brother. She complains about him smoking green and playing video games all day while throwing in a few jabs to try and get him out of the house. Alright, Still is the opposite of the projects that I’ve been listening to by women recently. I guess that’s how quality really shines.
Rating: 7/10