In this world of manufactured pop pap, it’s heartening when someone like LILY ALLEN turns up. While Shayne Ward watches his p’s and q’s with puppet masters Cowell and Walsh keeping guard behind him, she causes a stir seemingly every time she opens her mouth. And brilliantly, she’s just being herself.
With an attitude that suggests she always knew superstardom was coming, she’s taken the pop world by storm, single-handedly waging war on indie and what she sees as the multitudes of clones in drainpipe jeans. She now has an album brimming with attitude and pop suss to add to her armoury.
Nothing quite matches ’Smile’ here, but then great pop singles are hardly ten-a-penny, are they? That song’s lyrical flair is present throughout, and there are shades of The Streets, especially on the superb ’LDN’, a whistle-stop tour of London as she sees it. The wit of lines such as “A fella looking dapper, but he’s sitting with a slapper, then I see it’s a pimp and his crack whore” is her strength.
Nothing’s taken particularly seriously, delivered in her couldn’t-be-bothered Lahndahn drawl, but you find yourself hanging on her every word. Those words often pull few punches, especially on the subject of exes, and you wouldn’t want to cross her. ‘Not Big’ is her little message to a former lover and, well, you can guess what she’s getting at. There’s something innately thrilling about subject matters of this ilk being sung by the country’s new bona-fide pop star. It’s a reminder that pop music can be subversive and rebellious, but also, y’know, popular.
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Musically, she dabbles in reggae and even jazz on a couple of occasions, all infused with a swagger that gives her a sound of her own. It sometimes brings to mind Amy Winehouse, or how she would sound if she wasn’t so concerned with appealing to the Radio Two brigade. Ironically, Radio Two love Lily Allen, playing ‘Smile’ to death., demonstrating this girl’s widespread appeal. She’s not the finished article yet, and it’s certainly not a perfect album, but her ramshackle, wide-eyed charm wins through. Final track ‘Alfie’, an affectionate ode to her stoner brother, is a good example of this. On one hand unbearably twee, it’s also wickedly funny- a bizarre highlight of a completely individual record.
Acquaint yourself with this young lady, you’ll be seeing a lot of her from now on.
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