#MusicMonday: Lily Allen

Hello sappers, I am starting this week in a bright musical note. Lily Allen won my heart at first with her record “It’s Not Me, It’s You”, I thought it was very clever, the sound was right and the lyrics, as it is characteristic of her, were very boldsy and out there. There are 3 singles that stud out for me from this record, and they were: “The Fear”, “Everyone’s At it”, “Fuck You” and “It’s Not Fair”.

The Fear talks about everyone’s desire to be rich and famous and how we would be willing to do anything for it, Allen sings about stereotypes and what is perceived as “perfect” o “beauty”, and takes the personal note that she doesn’t know what to do or how to feel anymore, how the fear has taken over. A really great, catchy song and also an eye opener about the industry (in case you didn’t already know).

Everyone’s at it talks about everyone doing drugs, getting prescription medicine to get high and how easy it is to get it for really anyone to get some and again how this is the “cool thing to do”.

Fuck you is just her anthem to every hater out there that criticizes not only her but certain misunderstood groups and underdogs, so she tells them to F*ck off in a very sweet tune.

Not Fair is about love, how it is never fair to everyone, or how it is fairer to some, it also has a cool mid west, cowgirl folklore to it that Allen is kind of obsessed with, and it sound really good.

Well all of this was a preface to talk about her new album “Sheezus”. I must admit at first I did not like the songs that were coming out, “Hard Out Here” was the big come back single and I thought was a been there done that song, kinda like an Eminem, the real slim shady deal. Then it was “sheezus so I thought the whole record would be just a mockery to pop culture and mainstream music, and stuff like that, so I kinda gave up on here.

It wasn’t till one of my youtube browsing nights that I came across a video of hers that I haven’t seen much less heard the song. The video was for the song “Our Time” were allen plays herself and her two alter egos or alter selfs, she plays her life of the party self, her quiet self and her normal self. The song is all about having a good time not caring what everyone thinks, no matter their age, their music preferences and stuff like that, the song is actually quite mellow, but really good and catchy, and the video is funny as f*ck; so then I started watching her other videos and they were quite good, fun and the music was good, it was the Allen I remembered, I loved them very much, and I played close attention to lyrics and details and of course I was reminded why I love Lily so much.

It was her song “As Long As I Got You” that turned me over it a very cool song, upbeat, and it has that funky folk vibe I was talking about early, but the song that convinced me after all was “URL Badman” the song is for all the procrastinators out there who try to make a thing out of the internet, the song is kinda upbeat I guess, I has an electronic vibe to it, and the video is quite cool, plus I love the intro I think that dude’s voice is quite funny and it always get a laught or smile out of me. Anyways I couldn’t resist myself, so I went ahead and bought the record from iTunes and it is now one of my favorite records of all time; despite it being so intimate and personal, you somehow relate to it even though you have nothing in common with her, and I often find myself singing along and sometimes, yes dancing to some songs, no shame here, the record is quite good and its Lily Allen, I mean, you get what you expect, her real true self singing her perspective about things, life, love, and personal matters.

My personal favorites are: Our Time, URL Badman,  As Long As I Got You, Air Ballon, Wind Your Neck, Air Ballon, Silver Spoon, Sheezus and the cover of Cold Play’s “Somewhere Only We Know” which is very good.

I really recommend this record, if you are fan of hers you know what I mean, and if you’re not but like to hear a different point of view in music other then the mainstream one, then go ahead and give it a listen, probably won’t regret it.