Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

What a difference a couple of weeks make. If I would have reviewed this disc when I first picked it up, I would have given it a much more glowing review than it deserves. Now that I have had a chance to let it sink in, I am a little disappointed with the total result. Make no mistake, I am an apologetic Lily Allen fan, and really wanted to love this disc after waiting for it for so long, but the love just isn’t there. I am not sure if the problem is in the fact that about 4 songs in, the sheen of overproduction starts to become overpowering, or if it is the semi-retarded audacity of the lyrics. That sounds like old man talk, but seriously, I think that if you want to sing a scathing indictment about the Bush presidency (“Fuck You”), it probably holds more weight when not following a song about your predilection for giving head and “sleeping in the wet patch” (“It’s Not Fair”). And that is a shame, because both songs are pretty great, just not in context of each other.

The other standout tracks here are “The Fear”, which manages to encapsulate the entire 13 years of doubt Axl Rose toiled with on Chinese Democracy into a three minute piece of sugary goodness, and the bonus track “Fag Hag”. The latter being one of the catchiest, and most embarrassing songs to get stuck in your head in ages, while Allen sings that “she can be your fag hag, and you can be her gay”, while agreeing that they are both “in their element when down on their knees” and sipping coffee or hitting museums. Yeats and PC it ain’t, but Allen nails it like a chick that is just 50lbs and a bad breakup away from hitting up the Castle on Friday nights.

While It’s Not Me, It’s You might not be as strong as I had hoped for, in the interim between her debut and this follow up, Allen has had a great run of covers from The Kaiser Chiefs to The Clash to E.L.O.

I am including a couple of the best tracks from It’s Not Me, and a handful of my favorite Allen covers.