Lily Allen

Started by Jeremy Blackman, May 13, 2014, 11:28:35 PM

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Jeremy Blackman




New album is pretty interesting. Any thoughts?

Still on the first listen. "Hard Out Here" is just great. "Sheezus" is funny. "Air Balloon" are "URL Badman" are quite catchy.

"Our Time" is dumb and disappointing. There are some others I've kind of skipped over (so far).

Jeremy Blackman

If people don't remember Lily Allen, she wrote this song about her brother, Alfie Allen, now employed as Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones.




She also wrote this song about George W. Bush:




(Actually the entirety of It's Not Me, It's You is pretty good.)

And her classic hit:



Sleepless

Not really a huge fan of the new album. Love her first two. Out Time isn't that bad though. I like Hard Out Here best.

Incidentally, re GoT.

On a different vein, if you like Lily Allen, you should check out Marina and the Diamonds. Not exactly similar, but I'm a big fan.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Jeremy Blackman

The new album overall is meh. These are my highlights:

Hard Out Here
Air Balloon
URL Badman
Insincerely Yours

"Hard Out Here" is brilliant, kind of a showcase for all of Lily Allen's strengths. Her brand of feminism is so incisive and entertaining. ("Don't you want to have somebody who objectifies you? / Have you thought about your butt? Who's gonna tear it in two?") I wouldn't have minded a couple more songs like this.

Air Balloon is the obvious second best, and Insincerely Yours is also quite good (musically, at least).

I think I'm done with "Sheezus." The Lady Gaga line is great, but the rest of it I can do without.

Perhaps the main problem is that Lily Allen in reality has grown up and is actually a bit of a softie, married with two kids, more interested in normal stuff. Even her last album, 5 years ago, was half-filled with songs about domestic bliss. You really don't believe she wants to be Sheezus; her voice is oddly sweet and toothless through ostensibly edgy lyrics. The song acknowledges her halfheartedness ("Don't let my kids watch me when I get in the ring") and the whole thing could be a play on that, but if that's the case, I'm not sure what the point of it is, because it doesn't quite work as parody either.