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DVDfever.co.uk – Lily Allen: Its Not Me, Its YouElly Roberts reviews
Regal Records
- Released: February 2009
- Rating: 6/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Lily Allen ..issues, issues, and more issues. A deeply personal album.
Despite her deep-rooted self doubts, Grammy nominated pop princess Lily Allens second album surprisingly exudes plenty of songwriting confidence.
She recently admitted to being intimidated by working with certain music peers, nevertheless, the down -to – earth star has people flocking to work with her.
One such person is producer Greg Kurstin fom US band The Bird And The Bee who apparently works the chords and Lily appears to sing along until final versions emerge. It was mostly recorded at Eagle Rock studios in LA. Nice eh?
So for her follow-up to her 2.5 million selling Alright Still, Lily, keeps her foot well and truly stuck on the street cred button.
The grooves and lush production are still intact as she ponders disillusionment on opener Everyones At It, a reference to drug culture: Its meant to be fun and this just doesnt feel right / why cant we all be honest. Well, we all knew doing gear isnt, er, good foya, even if its prescribed. She does gush How can we start to tackle the problem, showing an acute awareness, and maturity. The music alone couches this controversial subject, though the overall mood is at odds with the subject matter.
Single, The Fear, number one this week (W/C Feb 2) is streets ahead of anything around, and as we all know, its swipe at the Celeb World weve embraced all wrapped up in an infectious pop song.
Relationships are still a big thing for our Lil, (she is only 23 remember) so Not Fair, a massive rush, blasts a lover performance, despite his caring nature. The country shuffle masks the issue once more.
On a reggae pulse, 22, deals with an aging socialiser whos lost the plot on reaching 30 looks past her sell-by-date, according to the scencesters. This is Lilys key to success, dealing with those issues wrapped in pure pop, but highlighting them, as she sees them from her London life.
I Could Say is down-the middle-pop with sumptuous strings and fab production; a whopping lament, again, the music reflects a sort of celebration clever stuff.
The fun continues on music-hall-influenced Never Gonna Happen, attempting to rebuke a certain advance, and shes convincing too, I dont love you, making it the standout track.
Incredibly, deliberately or not, Whod Have Known has flashes of Beatles about it, or could have been written by Gary Barlow.
Chinese, is a craving for some kind of normality in her life, sumptuously moulded in a similar template to The Fear, whereas Him delves into the God factor, questioning his judgements on 21st century life, with that groove bouncing neatly.
Back to music hall, perky He Wasnt There, might at a push, be the next single as his has all the jolliness we expect from her, though she casts her suspicions about a lover, or is it that self-doubt resurfacing all over again.
Its not a great album, but a significant move forwards.
The verdict: Pop, with the common touch.
Radio: Hear tracks soon onwrexhamfm.com Weblinks:lilyallenmusic.com /myspace.com/lilymusic
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Everyones At It
2. The Fear
3. Not Fair
4. 22
5. I Could Say
6. Back to the Start
7. Never Gonna Happen
8. F**k You
9. Whod Have Known
10. Chinese
11. Him
12. He Wasnt ThereView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.