Audiogasm Review: Lily Allen - "Alright, Still"
So I really have to share an album with everyone that I'm crushing on completely right now. Lily Allen's "Alright, Still (released in the US on January 30th, 2007 by Capitol Records) is owning my CD player. The New York Times, in a special feature on Lily Allen, says that she "symbolizes a new blogging-age, middle-class girl: cockily ambitious, skeptical yet enthusiastic, technically savvy, musically open, obsessed with public expression and ready to fight back." Sounds like my kind of artist!
The music on Alright, Still is awesome, in plain and simple terms. I would attempt to pin down some sort of genre or any other artist that I've heard that Lily Allen might sound like, but it's totally fresh. She's taken so many of the best parts of music and mashed them up together. Track number two "Knock 'Em Down" is a great song about people trying to pick you up in bars, when all you want is to make them disappear:
"Yeah can I take your digits?"
And you're like, "no not in a million years, you're nasty
please leave me alone."
Allen's life of being bounced from school to school, eventually dropping out at age 14, and holding music as her lifeline has really affected this musical outcome. Her direct and concise lyrics get to the point without being inartistically blunt. In track number three, "LDN," Allen tells us about her love for the city of London, both for its good points and it's bad:
There was a little old lady, who was walkin down the road
She was struggling with bags from Tesco
There were people from the city having lunch in the park
I believe that it's called al fresco
Then a kid came along to offer a hand
But before she had time to accept it
hits her over the head, doesn't care if she's dead
Cause he's got all her jewelery and wallet
It may seem a little cruel in cold print, but take a listen to the song itself and it takes on a whole new feeling.
All in all, Allen's US debut is fantastic. Fabulous, even! The whole album is infused with an energy that really just makes you wanna roll all the windows down in your car and take a drive.
Audiogasm Intensity: OOOOO - "Phew! I think I need a cigarette!"
