Monday, 26 January 2009

Bored of the Lily Allen album already

Lily Allen's second album - It's Not Me, It's You - is not unleashed on the record buying public until 9 February. If you're in North America, you'll have to wait until 10 February. The Observer Music Monthly proclaimed the album the best new release for February, awarding it five stars out of five. This means that in OMM terms it is at least 20% better than Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion (or 'the new Animal Collective album', if you prefer).
But I'm already tired of it. Why? I'll tell you why...

1) Lily Allen is the proof that we don't live in a meritocracy. Not that Keith Allen barged into EMI and demanded a record contract for his daughter. But she didn't get to be a pop star/TV presenter/fashion designer based solely on her talents.

2) Lily's first album Alright, Still relied heavily on samples. And I mean heavily. Alfie borrowed so much from Sandie Shaw's Puppet On A String that even the video features a puppet. Sampling is not committing creative fraud, but who can still pretend that Lily is a musical genius for singing over Jackie Mittoo? Or pretend that she's a voice-of-a-generation lyrical genius? [Insert obligatory snark about rhyming al fresco with Tesco.]

3) Even if I don't want to listen to it, I'm going to pick it up by osmosis. Whenever I innocently switch on the radio/switch on the TV/walk into a shop/walk into a bar, Lily Allen's album will be there. Going into my ears without my written permission.

4) Some people (like Miranda Sawyer) praise Lily Allen for being outspoken and opinionated. I know plenty of people who will loudly tell you what they're thinking. They are not outspoken or opinionated; they are obnoxious. They are the sort of people you don't want to sit next to in the pub. The ones who claim to have lost their money and demand you lend them a tenner.

5) I've spent enough time thinking about Lily Allen now, so that's it.

No comments:

Post a Comment