Lily Allen | ||
| Allmusic Biography : With her omnivorous musical tastes and cheeky attitude, London-based pop singer/songwriter Lily Allen made a name for herself almost as soon as she released her demos on the Internet. The daughter of comedian Keith Allen, Lily spent most of her childhood bouncing from one school to another; in fact, she attended 13 different schools between the ages of five and 15. This constant moving meant she didnt have much of a chance to make lasting friendships, so Allen entertained herself with books and, especially, music: she listened to everything from T. Rex, the Specials, and the Slits to the Happy Mondays and drumnbass, and even ran away to see the Glastonbury Festival when she was 14. After she left school a year later, she realized that music was the only career for her. Allen concentrated on her songwriting and singing, developing a style that was equally sweet and bratty; late in 2005, she set up a MySpace page and posted demos of her songs, as both individual tracks and as part of two limited-edition "mixtapes" that also featured tracks by Dizzee Rascal, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Ludacris. The critical acclaim for her work fueled Allens publicity, leading to tens of thousands of friends on MySpace, airplay on BBC Radio One, and a record deal with Regal/Parlophone before the end of 2005. Allen began working on her full-length album with producers such as Greg Kurstin, Mark Ronson (with whom she also collaborated on a cover of the Kaiser Chiefs "Oh My God" that appeared on her second mixtape), and Futurecut, and released a limited-edition 7" of LDN as her debut single in spring 2006. Both LDN and Smile, which followed that summer, were chart successes, with the former reaching number seven on the U.K. chart and the latter hitting number one the week it debuted. Hot on the heels of Smile came Allens first full-length, Alright, Still, which she supported with a slew of dates stretching out to the end of the year. Despite the speed of her success, Allen continued to update her MySpace page with amusing blog rants, including one about her June 2006 appearance on Top of the Pops that berated the lead singer of the Kooks for "wearing broken straw hats and dark sunglasses" indoors and Dirty Pretty Things for having "organic sliced bread on the rider." Allen rang in 2007 with more tour dates, including gigs in Japan, Australia, and the U.S., and the U.S. release of Alright, Still. She also earned nominations for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo for that years Brit Awards, while "Smile" and Alright, Still were nominated for British Single and British Album, respectively. Allen spent most of 2007 touring, but also collaborated with Dizzee Rascal on Maths and Englishs duet "Wanna Be," and provided vocals on Basement Jaxxs Crazy Itch Radio. Allens personal life and side projects were nearly as prominent as her music career, with her relationship with Chemical Brother Ed Simons and her subsequent miscarriage making headlines in late 2007 and early 2008. In February 2008, Allen embarked on a talk show on BBC Three, Lily Allen and Friends, which lasted through that April. That month, Allen posted two new demos on her MySpace page, including "GWB," which was about President George Bush; for her second album, she worked with producer Greg Kurstin of the Bird and the Bee, and co-wrote several songs with him instead of just providing the lyrics. She also worked on songs with Jamie Reynolds of the Klaxons and wrote a song about comedian James Corden for the 2008 Shockwaves Awards. Another new song, "Everyones at It," debuted that fall, and Allen courted controversy again with an unauthorized cover of Britney Spears "Womanizer" that December. Its Not Me, Its You, which covered topics like drugs, fame, family, and society, arrived early in 2009, preceded by the single "The Fear." Despite the albums success, which included platinum certification in the U.K. and a debut at the top of the charts in the U.K., Canada, and Australia (and at number five in the U.S.), in September 2009 Allen did not renew her record contract and took a hiatus from making music. She remained busy, however, founding her own label In the Name Of (which included Cults on its roster), writing songs for the musical version of Bridget Jones Diary, and starting a family with her boyfriend Sam Cooper, whom she married in June 2011. The following year, she announced that she was in the studio working on new music with longtime producer Greg Kurstin; she also sang vocals on P!nks 2012 single "True Love," which was produced by Kurstin. Early in 2013, she gave birth to her second child. By November 2013, she had released a cover of Keanes "Somewhere Only We Know" for a holiday television commercial by U.K. retailer John Lewis. The single version promptly became her third U.K. number one single. Two subsequent singles, "Hard Out Here" and "Air Balloon," both reached the British Top Ten as well, and both appeared on her third album, Sheezus, which appeared in early May 2014. The album debuted at number one in the U.K., and hit number 12 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Following the albums release, Allen performed at Glastonbury Festival, and embarked on a headlining tour which took her through 2015. In 2018, she returned with her fourth studio album, No Shame, which included the single "Trigger Bang" featuring rapper Giggs. The album found her moving away from longtime producer Kurstin, and embracing a more intimate, electropop sound. The album also appeared on the heels of a difficult period for the singer, who had gone to court over ongoing harassment by stalker Alex Gray (Gray was convicted and sentenced to an indeterminate hospital stay in 2016 after having broken into her house and threatened her). Allen, who amicably divorced husband Cooper in 2018, also admitted in an interview with Vulture to having gone through an "identity crisis" during and after the recording of Sheezus, and subsequently worked to regain her creative direction. No Shame debuted at number eight on the U.K. albums chart. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 8 Title: Alright, Still Released: 2006-07-17 Tracks: 11 Duration: 37:09 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Smile (03:15) 2 Knock ’em Out (02:54) 3 LDN (03:11) 4 Everything’s Just Wonderful (03:28) 5 Not Big (03:16) 6 Friday Night (03:06) 7 Shame for You (04:06) 8 Littlest Things (03:02) 9 Take What You Take (04:06) 10 Friend of Mine (03:57) 11 Alfie (02:45) |
| Alright, Still : Allmusic album Review : Like most British pop, Lily Allens debut album, Alright, Still, overflows with impeccably shiny, creative productions. However, Allen attempts to set herself apart from the likes of Rachel Stevens, Natasha Bedingfield, and Girls Aloud with a cheeky, (mostly) amusing vindictive streak in her lyrics that belies the sugarcoated sounds around them. You know exactly what she means when she says her ex is "not big whatsoever" on "Not Big"; later, she revels in being the one that got away on "Shame for You." However, this nice-then-naughty approach is at its best on Alright, Stills singles, which open the album in a one-two-three punch. Another ex-boyfriend kiss-off, "Smile," has a silky verse melody that just barely conceals her spite, which finally spills over on the chorus: "At first, when I see you cry/It makes me smile." But even here, Allen keeps her revenge sweet -- she sounds like shes singing about how ice cream or puppies or being in love makes her smile, which gives the song an extra sting. "Knock Em Out" is an even sassier, more stylized battle of the sexes than the Streets "Fit But You Know It" (and could very well be the response from the girl in Mike Skinners song). And "LDN" is a glorious summer confection, even if "its all lies" underneath the Lord Kitchener sample and "sun is in the sky" chorus. Alright, Stills production and arrangements, courtesy of Greg Kurstin, Mark Ronson, and Futurecut, balance Allens tart observations with a backdrop of pop-grime beats and freewheeling, feel-good ska that makes her sound playful and kittenish instead of just catty. While the album doesnt exactly go downhill after its opening salvo, it does lose some steam, particularly with "Take What You Take," a song that feels out of character with the rest of Alright, Still because its uncharacteristically dull, and "Alfie," which falls especially flat as the albums final song. Allen softens her tough-girl pose more successfully on "Little Things," a ballad that celebrates the mundane moments of a dying relationship ("Youd take me out shopping and all wed buy was trainers/As if we ever needed anything to entertain us") and "Everythings Just Wonderful," where "bureaucrats that wont give me a mortgage" are the targets of her ire instead of a previous (or soon-to-be previous) boyfriend. As with Nellie McKay (another young, opinionated woman eager to make herself the maverick in her chosen style of music), the dichotomy between Allens sweet sound and ironic lyrics could be seen as either witty or clever-clever. Still, enough of Alright, Still works -- as pure pop and on the meta level Allen aims for -- to make the album a fun, summery fling, and maybe more. [The U.S. version of Alright, Still includes a remix of "Smile" and the 50 Cent parody "Nan Youre a Window Shopper" as well as U-MYX software, which allows listeners to make their own remixes of "Smile" and "Knock Em Out" -- not an essential addition, but a surprisingly fun one nonetheless.] | ||
 | Album: 2 of 8 Title: Alfie Released: 2007-07-11 Tracks: 6 Duration: 18:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Alfie (02:45) 2 Smile (03:15) 3 Everybody’s Changing (02:40) 4 Nan You’re a Window Shopper (02:58) 5 Alfie (CSS remix) (03:56) 6 Smile (Version Revisited: Mark Ronson remix) (03:14) |
 | Album: 3 of 8 Title: It’s Not Me, It’s You Released: 2008-12-02 Tracks: 12 Duration: 43:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Everyone’s at It (04:38) 2 The Fear (03:27) 3 Not Fair (03:21) 4 22 (03:06) 5 I Could Say (04:04) 6 Back to the Start (04:14) 7 Never Gonna Happen (03:27) 8 Fuck You (03:41) 9 Who’d Have Known (03:50) 10 Chinese (03:28) 11 Him (03:18) 12 He Wasn’t There (02:52) |
| It’s Not Me, It’s You : Allmusic album Review : At the height of Pulps fame, Jarvis Cocker channeled all his existential dread about celebrity into a chilling epic called "The Fear." Ten years later, Lily Allen -- the funniest British pop star since Jarvis and perhaps the best -- uses the same title to explore paralyzing fame, but instead of turning inward, Lily deflects, pushing all her anxiety into a Paris Hilton wannabe, a "weapon of massive consumption" that we know isnt Lily herself because this girl "doesnt care about clever." Lily, of course, cares very, very much about clever: its how she defines herself as an artist and as a persona. Her quips are precise in her lyrics and savage in public, as evidenced when she drunkenly baited her co-presenter Elton John at a British awards show. Such displays tend to obscure her considerable skills as a storyteller, a gift that also gets buried beneath tabloid headlines that place her among pop tarts and princesses. Lily is attracted and repelled by fame, adoring the limelight but neither the company or how it forces personal problems to the forefront, and all these contradictions fuel her second album, Its Not Me, Its You. Like many a bright pop star before her, Allen is feeling a little bit older than her 23 years, knowing that the landscape of her life is changing, and shes dreading her 30s, which still feel very far away. Lily doesnt state this outright, of course: she puts it into the character sketch of "22," just like how she deals with the blizzard of cocaine and pills on "Everyones at It," registering her sneering disdain for a social scene shes outgrowing yet not quite ready to leave behind. Far from being a crutch, this narrative distancing is Lilys strength: unlike so many of her too-sensitive peers, she doesnt indiscriminately spill emotions onto the page, she picks her targets, choosing to reveal personal secrets we already know -- tellingly, she never addresses her 2008 miscarriage, but happily serves up her dysfunctional relationships with her parents, something that has provided endless column inches in gossip rags. If theres an element of Lily picking low-hanging fruit here and on "The Fear" and on the George W. Bush kiss-off "F*** You" -- or even "Not Fair," a cousin to "Not Big," where Allen laments a lover who is perfect in every way except his inability to make her scream -- the key to any story is how its told, and telling is Lilys strength, how she ferrets out bypassed details or delivers a well-worn punchline. Its Not Me pushes this talent to the forefront, in part because she works with only one collaborator here: Greg Kurstin, half of the Bird and the Bee and responsible for several cuts on Alright, Still but not the big hits "Smile" and "LDN," which were produced by Mark Ronson. Without Ronson, Lily isnt quite so glitzy or glammy, she even flirts with adult pop without succumbing to tedium. Kurstin doesnt avoid pop hooks or cheeky camp -- "F*** You" galumphs by on a two-step, "He Wasnt There" is music hall pastiche, and "Never Gonna Happen" gives Lily plenty of room to be coyly disingenuous -- but Its Not Me, Its You streamlines Allens eccentricities and bad habits, holding together in a way the gloriously messy Alright, Still never quite managed. Theres a slight drawback to this cohesion -- Its Not Me never hits heights as blinding as "Smile" or "LDN" -- but this approach does wind up spotlighting just how special a pop star Lily Allen is, how she captures all thats wretched and glorious about her time without falling into any of its traps, probably because shes clever enough to avoid them in the first place. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 8 Title: Remixed Released: 2009 Tracks: 12 Duration: 53:51 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Everyones at It (Doc Fritz Recreational mix) (05:53) 2 The Fear (Doc Fritz Fearchestral version) (03:30) 3 Not Fair (Doc Fritz Uncool mix) (04:14) 4 22 (Doc Fritz 23 mix) (04:39) 5 I Could Say (Doc Fritz Function mix) (06:03) 6 Back to the Start (Doc Fritz This Is Just a Remix) (04:44) 7 Never Gonna Happen (Doc Fritz Whats Happening mix) (04:08) 8 Fuck You (Doc Fritz Fossa Nova mix) (03:46) 9 Who’d Have Known (Doc Fritz Moss Side mix) (04:07) 10 Chinese (Doc Fritz Toolie mix) (03:58) 11 Him (Doc Fritz Riot Hymn mix) (03:22) 12 He Wasnt There (Doc Fritz Welsh mix) (05:27) |
 | Album: 5 of 8 Title: F.U.E.P. Released: 2009-03-31 Tracks: 4 Duration: 13:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 F**k You (03:40) 2 Fag Hag (02:55) 3 Kabul Shit (03:44) 4 Womanizer (acoustic session) (03:33) |
 | Album: 6 of 8 Title: Paris / NRJ Live Sessions Released: 2009-11-20 Tracks: 5 Duration: 19:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Fuck You (03:53) 2 22 (Vingt deux) (03:58) 3 The Fear (03:17) 4 Littlest Things (03:32) 5 Everyone’s at It (04:33) |
 | Album: 7 of 8 Title: Sheezus Released: 2014-05-02 Tracks: 17 Duration: 1:00:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Sheezus (03:54) 2 L8 CMMR (03:24) 3 Air Balloon (03:48) 4 Our Time (04:19) 5 Insincerely Yours (03:39) 6 Take My Place (03:31) 7 As Long as I Got You (03:23) 8 Close Your Eyes (03:36) 9 URL Badman (03:39) 10 Silver Spoon (03:37) 11 Life for Me (04:00) 12 Hard Out Here (03:31) 1 Wind Your Neck In (03:19) 2 Who Do You Love? (03:26) 3 Miserable Without Your Love (03:23) 4 Holding on to Nothing (02:59) 5 Somewhere Only We Know (03:28) |
| Sheezus : Allmusic album Review : At her best, Lily Allen operates just at the edge of a crowd, slyly and snidely passing judgment from a safe distance. That sense of remove remains on Sheezus, her overdue third album, but its curdled. Shes no longer an observer; shes an outsider longing to be inside. Blame it on her extended hiatus. Allen lay silent for a half decade, choosing to pursue a family life instead of the pop charts, but now that shes primed for a comeback, shes ready to ruffle some feathers, baiting Kanye West with her album title, sweetening M.I.A.s style for "Air Balloon," and taking swipes at Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lorde, and Lady Gaga on the albums title track. The subtext is clear: Allen is no provincial pop star; she belongs in the big leagues. Based on her two previous albums -- her 2006 debut Alright, Still and its 2009 sequel Its Not Me, Its You -- this claim to the throne wouldnt seem like a stretch, but unfortunately Sheezus is pretty thin gruel. Occasionally, there are glints of Lilys satirical swagger and casual craft, but Sheezus often teems with an unseemly defensiveness that sours the entire proceedings. Its there when Allen simultaneously sneers at and co-opts modern R&B ("Silver Spoon," "Hard Out Here"); its there when she taunts other stars and also when she writes too many songs about her husband, warning all other females to not give him so much as a second look ("L8 Cmmr"). Many of these songs falter on their specificity; shes traded incisive commentary for pedantic details paired with music that winds up diminished by her weariness. Talented as she is, Allen does indeed rally at unexpected moments -- "Insincerely Yours" slides along to a yacht-soul groove, "Life for Me" cleverly twists Vampire Weekends Graceland obsessions, and although the target of an Internet troll is beneath her, the barbs on "URL Badman" are at least sharpened -- but these songs only put the rest of Sheezus in dreary relief. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 8 Title: No Shame Released: 2018-06-08 Tracks: 14 Duration: 51:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Come on Then (03:11) 2 Trigger Bang (03:32) 3 What You Waiting For? (03:06) 4 Your Choice (03:42) 5 Lost My Mind (03:47) 6 Higher (04:08) 7 Family Man (03:38) 8 Apples (03:39) 9 Three (03:38) 10 Everything to Feel Something (04:57) 11 Waste (03:30) 12 My One (02:58) 13 Pushing Up Daisies (03:44) 14 Cake (03:28) |
| No Shame : Allmusic album Review : Sheezus halted Lily Allens momentum cold in 2014. Delivered after a five-year hiatus, the album found Allen attempting to balance her personal and professional lives, not taking stock of how pop culture had changed in her absence. The opposite is true of No Shame, the album she released in June 2018. During that four-year gap, Allen was never quite invisible in pop culture, thanks in part to her presence on social media, an obsession that fuels a good portion of No Shame. Throughout the album, Allen adds references to smartphones and social media, keenly aware how pocket-sized devices unite the globe and flatten celebrity, turning unknowns into superstars and transforming icons into everyday nutters. This observation not only acts as a binding agent on No Shame, but resolves the lingering problem of Sheezus: Allen no longer appears to be sitting in judgment of the rest of the world. If anything, shes harshest on herself, particularly how she now has to make her way as a single mother, revealing a vulnerability shes previously taken pains to hide. Chalk it up to emotional maturation, the kind that comes after the world delivers a few surprise blows and, fittingly, No Shame feels mature with its glassy, multi-layered arrangements and muted rhythms. Hip-hop and dancehall still inform a good portion of Allens music (Giggs, Burna Boy, and Lady Chann all make cameos) and she still has a way with sunny hooks ("My One"), but No Shame isnt a soundtrack to party. Its music for reflection, and coming from an artist who made snark her specialty, thats a step forward. | ||