It's Not Me, It's You

Lily Allen once again shares her fears, pretensions and wishes

It might seem unbelievable but releasing only one album, Alright Still, Lily Allen has not only become famous all over the world and received several prestigious awards but also a serves an example for many a young performers among whom Katy Perry is also counted. At first sight Lily’s clear and innocent vocals do not fit with those frank and bold songs of which her repertoire mainly consists of but it is actually one of her main success components. Unprintable vocabulary in her lyrics sounds so appropriate that almost seems a norm, and honest confessions make these autobiographic stories close to any young person regardless the age. Last year Lily had a number of new ideas that have finally materialized in the form of her sophomore effort It’s Not Me, It’s You. This record presents an even more mature, bolder and aggressively frank Lily singing, as before, about relationship, failed for most varied reasons, as well as about society, drugs and politics, once again sharing her fears, pretensions and wishes with the whole world.

It’s Not Me, It’s You is: an album as integral as possible

Telling of her new work Lily Allen has especially stressed that she this time around she wanted to make an album as integral as possible, and It’s Not Me, It’s You is really not as chaotically diverse as the previous record. It opens with Everyone's At It, a composition on which Lily expresses her concern about an overall drug addiction that exposes children to danger, whereas on the first single The Fear she tells of her long-time fear dealing with the consumerism of the modern world. One of the most interesting and frank songs of the album is Not Fair devoted to a guy that Lily would find all right if it were not for one significant drawback of his. A beautiful composition I Could Say is about a breakup but it is not sad as one might expect, on the contrary, the singer expresses her sincere joy because she is now free from a relationship in which she has never been happy. Another album’s highlight is track Never Gonna Happen, a direct rebuff to an unlucky ex lover refined with a contagious harmonica and splendid rhythm. Besides, the song Fuck You cannot be ignored; initially it is addressed to the British National Party and as the singer believes, it expresses most young people’s views on politics and freedom. Ballad Who'd Have Known is also among the record’s best tracks, the main themes here are friendship and love, while Chinese is remarkable for a most beautiful melody and successful instrumental background that combines greatly with Allen’s vocals. The album closes with almost a danceable song Kabul Shit with a complicated accompaniment and lyrics which are sure to touch everyone as it dwells upon several social problems at once, and a bonus track Fag Hag, probably the most similar to the debut album of a more easy-going Lily.

A harmonious and integral work

It goes without saying that Lily Allen’s music has become so popular first of all because this girl is not striving for imitating anybody and is not willing to meet the standard requirements doing everything only as she believes is right. This is true for both of her works and is obviously going to be the same way in future. As for It’s Not Me, It’s You, it is obviously different from its predecessor in particular because Lily has recorded it with Greg Kurstin of The Bird And The Bee, who has by the way written three of the previous record’s tracks. The songs were practically born by themselves during the working process and both of the artists are quite satisfied with the result. The new record’s harmoniousness and integrity demonstrate that the singer has burnished her own inimitable style even more and the lyrics continue to surprise and at times even astonish. There have never existed any moral borders for Lily Allen so that she could tell honestly and directly everything she thinks. The success of her songs can be explained by the fact that her ideas coincide with those of her listeners. Besides not everyone is able to accept one’s failures or look one’s fear in the eye, and for that the 23 year old artist can be only admired.