It’s Not Me, It’s You

Over the years many singers and songwriters have used writing music as a method of personal therapy; it’s a common and often profound way of relating to your demographic through shared experience, so why not? But never has anyone used music in such a way as Lily Allen. Known in the media as the opinionated, cynical and pretty shameful daughter of BBC drama star Keith Allen, Lily has successfully racked up a long list of adoring fans, haters and celebrity feuds. Second album, It’s Not Me It’s You, takes her in a completely different direction than acclaimed debut, Alright Still, the genre changes from song to song and at times seems confused and awkward, demonstrating some of the risks of changing direction for a second album.

First single ‘The Fear’ has already charted at number one for three successive weeks, at the same time as the album, and is a real pop corker; less poppy than ‘LDN’ but wonderfully ironic in all the right ways. Lily is one of the few artists in today’s charts who talks so frankly about the superficial aspect of ‘the industry’, she happily de-glamorises the ins and outs of her life in a very blasé and sometimes ungrateful manner, and with lyrics like ‘I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds’ it’s no surprise that Allen is constantly criticised for her immature behaviour and unthankful attitude towards her success. ‘The Fear’ is a great song, there’s no doubt about that, it’s the best song she could have chosen to introduce the album. It’s quick, witty, ironic, catchy and really shows off Lily’s superb voice. It’s just a shame that only some songs on the album reflect her full talent; ‘Never Gonna Happen’ is a very annoying, childish song, perhaps comparable to the last track on her Debut album, ‘Alfie’, and doesn’t compare to any of the stronger songs on the album.

‘F**k You’ is another song which is a little embarrassing and frankly unnecessary; a lot of the content of the songs on It’s Not Me, It’s You is hard to relate to and makes it seem as though Allen is using the album as a mouthpiece to settle her feuds and vent all of her outspoken opinions about how hard her life is and why everyone is doing everything wrong. The constant swearing and foul lyrics (‘Oh I lie here in the wet patch in the middle of the bed. I’m feeling pretty hard done by, I’ve spent ages giving head’) is another off-putting factor of this album, especially if you’re considering buying it for your little sister’s birthday… The melodies are of course extremely memorable, but highly irritating if left on repeat (as I’ve learnt) and ‘Who’d Have Known’ sounds exactly like Take That’s ‘Shine’, EXACTLY LIKE IT. Someone should seriously have filed some sort of copyright infringement on it. ‘Everyone’s At It’, the opening track to the album, is a dig at the drugs in circulation in ‘the music biz’, perhaps a little hypocritical coming from Lily, who has once admitted that her ‘teenage years are a blur of drink and drugs’, even her song lyrics give her hypocrisy away: ‘I get involved but I’m not advocating’, yeah right Lily, that makes no sense and I don’t believe you anyway…

‘Him’ is an interesting approach to discussing God, definitely not a subject I would have ever expected to be the subject of one of Lily Allen’s songs, so credit to her for expanding her horizons, although it’s a little audacious at times. Once again Lily’s lyrics are subject to both humour and controversy; make what you will of it as she obviously doesn’t care. It’s Not Me, It’s You is what it says on the tin, Allen blaming others for more or less everything that is wrong with her life, pretty much what one would expect. Saying all this, it is a great pop album, it cannot be faulted on that front, but don’t expect another Alright, Still. Allen has matured a lot in the two years since she released her debut, as has her music, so expect a darker more cynical Lily. Definitely a record worth listening to in 2009.