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

Lily Allen's album It's Not Me, It's You, brings the Britpop princess back with her candidly honest take on life in all her foul mouthed glory

Isha Singh Sawhney

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
EMI/Regal
The score: ★★★★

So, the music world heaves a sigh of relief. Lily Allen isn’t just another ditzy, shutterbug obsessed social butterfly. There are musical talents there. The Britpop princess is back with her sophomore album, It's Not Me, It’s You.

Lily’s album that is streaming free on her MySpace page is scheduled for a store release on the February 10. We checked it out, and were pleasantly surprised by the musical talents of this madcap popstar. Not only was the entire album exceptionally good (requisite repeat listens for a bunch of tracks too), but the lyrics are fun, brutally honest poetry and actually nail a bunch of life’s lessons right on the head.

And we also learnt that its not just Lily’s penchant for older men, boyfriend antics and almost an every second day appearance that tabloids that are getting her pseudo fans. Lily Allen MySpace page is testament to the fact that she has real excited teens, pre-teens, and others, who wait, and we quote “CAN’T WAIT 4 UR NEW ALBUM 2 BE RELESED!!”

It's Not Me, It’s You, has in the pop tunes, messages about life, addictions, Bush, et al. The album begins with the decadence of drugs with Everyone’s at It, with Lily taking a poke at everyone being on it, from people on coke to those Prozac. Just like her life has been broadcast to all, during the two-year gap between the cheeky Alright, Still, this album is as autobiographical as her blog entries.

One would love to know who is being blasted in It's Not Fair. It’s country guitars tunes, josh for space with lyrics about the perfect man, who sadly lacks in other important skills. As Lily lies in a “wet patch”, she taunts him for everything from his selfishness to his premature ejaculation.

The playful pumping finger clicking 22, has a hard hitting note underneath for all pretty girls out there, who suddenly, past a decade of partying and decadence, realises she might have missed the bus when she’s 30. “All she wants is a boyfriend and she gets one night stands.”

Since You’ve Gone and Go Back To The Start (supposedly about her slighted elder sister) revisit old relationships, talks of surviving, being stronger and older.  Lily stands up to her reputation of being candid, in an album, with references to lame relationships, drugs, sex and the danger of fame (The Fear). Yet, she reiterates this is about you, not me.

Hidden messages, easily interpretable by people as they wish, the puerile Fuck You targets George W. Bush (calling him racist and bigoted, in the midst of a fun ditzy tunes), Him is a song about God, Chinese is about the simple joys of stay at home nights, and He Wasn’t There about her dad.  

Lily Allen’s album is as refreshing in its foul-mouthed honesty as in the new range of influences, her producer introduces in this album. It’s Not Me, It’s You is all she wanted to tell her fans, and more.