Sound: The 21-year-old Londoner takes the ska, reggae and new wave influences from her parents’ record collection (particularly The Specials and the genre-blending Blondie) and uses it as a backdrop for her charismatic, saucy and detailed observations about life and relationships in the present day. Electronic touches, rapped/sung vocals and pop-friendly hooks add to a stylistic mishmash that is vibrant, youthful and nearly impossible to classify.
Heavy Rotation tracks: “Smile”; “LDN”
Medium Rotation tracks: “Knock ‘Em Out”; “Littlest Things”
Explicit Lyrics*: “Smile”; “Everything’s Just Wonderful”; “Take What You Take”; “Nan You’re A Window Shopper.” There are also sex and drug references on most tracks, which may be unsuitable for some audiences.
Recommended: The eloquence and confidence in Lily Allen’s music is exciting and infectious. Some of the poppier elements and juvenile attitude may turn off a few listeners, but she’s a promising and fearless new talent.
Grade: B+
Listen to Tracks/Buy Music:
On iTunes
On barnesandnoble.com
* Noting of explicit lyrics is for the benefit of radio music directors or anyone else that needs/wants to keep their music FCC-friendly.
Did the AIDS joke make the US release? Smile video is the perfect companion to “Weak Become Heroes,” Mike Skinner’s woefully overlooked classic.
Smile vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_jjuCfdksQ
WBH vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ua3fsbb43o
Skinner shares the Jamaican influence as well. When I saw him live in Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day three or four years ago he did a rousing take on The Specials’ “Ghost Town.”
And if you’ve never heard it, the Rokysopp “Memory Lane” Remix of WBH is even better.
(The critical negligence toward WBH really bugs me. Not that it wasn’t painfully forseeable.
Rock music types are more eager to pop over things that fit their template of a ROCK OPERA, such as Skinner’s AGDCFF, than any single, regardless of its quality.
Still it was depressing to watch how Skinner’s stock in American indie circles went from “Eminem wannabe” to “STREET ARTIST” after he put out something album-centric. I’m fine with digging the album stuff, but it pains me to see what I feel is his best work–and one the best lyrical encapsulations of dance culture maybe ever–grossly undervalued.)