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

It's Not Me, It's You - 2009

I acquired this album for the most part because I kept seeing it on "Top Album of 2009" lists. To be honest I was kinda surprised to see it on those lists beside records like St. Vincent's Actor, and Wild Beasts Two Dancers. I didn't know much about Allen. I'd seen the video for Alfie, thought it was momentarily amusing but ultimately dumb and just categorized Allen as some crappy, ditzy Brit chick.

So I listened to It's Not You, It's Me and it's far worse than I imagined. It's one of the worst albums I've ever heard. My God, what do music critics see in her? (Then again should I really be surprised? It was "the critics" after all who told us at one time that The Knack were the next Beatles and that Steve Forbert was the next Bob Dylan).

Lets break this down into form (music) and content (lyrics). First form. The music on this album is at best unspectacular. It's mostly the same tired over produced dreck that passes for pop music these days. Let's just compress everything so that it's all at the same volume to ensure that we produce as flavourless music as possible. Let's not do anything interesting. Lets not take any chances because people will only buy what they know. This isn't music it's product. I do wonder though if Allen programs her own drum machine.

Let's now look at content. This is even worse than the form. Allen sounds like a 12 year old trying to pass herself off as 14 year old. The know-it-all didactic nature of her lyrics is about as nauseating as contemporary music gets. What is she, 23 years old? What exactly does she think she has to tell the world? When I was her age she was still running around with shit in her pants. What exactly is it about life that she knows that I don't? The first track "Everyone's At It" seems to be about how everyone is on some drug or another and how society is in denial about the whole thing? What the fuck? Really? This is your message? The second track "The Fear" provides such gems as "I'm not a saint, but I'm not a sinner and everything's cool as long as I'm getting thinner". Seriously? This is pretty much the worst high school poetry I've ever heard. "Back To The Start" seems to be Allen's attempt to show us all how mature she is by writing an apology of a song. But two tracks later on "Fuck You" she reverts to the mentality of a 7 year old. If you don't agree with me "Fuck You". What remarkable intellectual discourse. The few songs that seem to deal with Allen's life, (I'm just guessing that they're actually about her, I could be wrong), portray her as a self obsessed, ego-maniac slut. I think the lowest point on the record is "Him". It's gotta be the stupidest song about God since "What If God Was One Of Us" by Joan Osborne. Is it suppose to be cute or funny singing about God's favorite band or financial situation? It's not. It's sub-mental.

Lily Allen pretty much sums up a lot of what's wrong not only with music today, but with society. She endorses a vain mindless existence dedicated to morbid self obsession and the endless constant satisfaction of one's own desires. It's about as immature and obnoxious an attitude as one can assume. Worst of all it's really fucking boring.