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The Long (and Winding) Road to Lily Allen

  • 6 min read
A long, and a winding road.
[To ensue – verb, to happen after something else, especially as a result of it.]

So I was on an Emily Browning thread. True to as described in How I Choose What To Watch, I’d spotted her somewhere (front page of TheTVDB I think) and thought “I haven’t seen her since American Gods. I wonder what she’s been up to?”

Research ensued.

Research uncovered a new series that she’s made called Class of ’07. Obtaining and viewing ensued (lots of ensuing, er… ensued).

Nice little Australian comedy consisting of 30 minute episodes, about an apocalyptic tidal wave hitting the world, trapping a group of women in their old school that they’d been in for a class reunion. Good series, cracking music, good actors.

A common thing for some series is to play a well-known track at the end of an episode as the credits roll – usually a track with some context for the ending of the episode (Brassic in particular does this to good effect). Class of ’07 was no exception.

Playing over the end credits of episode 6 was this jaunty little song, the main lyric of which are the words: Fuck You.

Research (obviously) ensued. Again.


Lily…

I was aware of Lily Allen of course, but barely. I knew nothing of her musical or her acting careers. I think must have vaguely been aware of (probably mis-) reported incidents in the press about her having some fun, but other that that I knew her only as Keith Allen’s daughter.

Musically speaking, she’s made four studio albums – a good place to start considering the track that started it all off:

  • Alright, Still
  • It’s Not Me It’s You
  • Sheezus
  • No Shame

Obtaining and listening ensued. What I normally do in this situation (especially when I’ve never heard the music before) is to make a playlist of all the songs and play them all. One after the other, over and over, in album order. That way, I get a first impression on first listen, then the subsequent listens “fine-tune” my opinion on each track. Some will be an instant hit with me straight away (like Fuck You), others may take a little time to settle in and others will miss the mark completely. Listening like that also gives an impression whether the artist has a story thread in the album (some do).

Sometimes, this process takes a very short amount of time, sometimes a long time depending on how well I’m acquainted with the artist’s work. (For instance, a new Sparks album will be Gold on first listen!)


Acting up

Meanwhile, I’ve been following another thread (down the bifurcated trousers of time), a thread about Doctor Who and New Amsterdam actor Freema Agyeman. Now Freema had a new series out in April of 2023 (on UK satellite channel SKY) called Dreamland. Starring in the series was Freema and… Lily Allen!

More obtaining and viewing ensued. I’ll be perfectly honest, I didn’t really hold many hopes for it (from the trailer). However once into it, I thought it was surprisingly good and quite funny in places. It’s filled with good established actors and the six episode story arc played out very well. Although Lily is no stranger to acting, this was one of her first roles in a television series. I thought she played it perfectly, too as one of the lead characters.


Nan, you’re a window shopper

Back to the music then. And something of a disclaimer, before we continue. Remember that these opinions are only my opinions. My musical taste is not your musical taste, or anyone else’s. What I decide is a good track may not be your opinion. I’m also not a reviewer. I just know what I do and don’t like.

It’s fair to say that none of her albums are bad. There are certainly different stylings at play throughout the arc of the four albums, but then consider that Alright, Still was released in 2006 and No Shame in 2018, so there’s 12 years of life experience that’s been lived between when the first album was released to the last.

I think that reflects well in the styles of music (and indeed the lyrical content). The first two albums are mainly the ska/reggae influenced up tempo songs – clearly this is in her fun period. Throughout Sheezus though, you can see this earlier style slipping into a more melodramatic phase which then manifests and establishes itself throughout No Shame (which in places is actually quite sad). They are all good albums in their own right and Lily has more than proved herself to be a superb singer/songwriter (despite the use of autotune in a track or two! *Grumbles*).

In some ways the stylisation of some of the tracks puts me in mind of her Father: Keith Allen. An actor and musician, Keith Allen had a notable hit with the football-orientated song Vindaloo (it’s actually a favourite of mine) in 1998 and was involved in some Two-Tone (ska) productions in the 1980’s.

Back to the albums, these are albums that I can listen to over and over and still pick bits out that have gone previously unnoticed. This is (in my opinion) a hallmark of good songwriting and a good songwriting ethic. It proves that thought has been put into the words. There are quite a few tracks on each album that have become my favourites (this is quite rare for me to have so many favourites – a good sign!).


Was it a good choice?

Sometimes you hear a good track, you do your research and you end up disappointed (see The Frustrations of Musical Disappointment). Not so in this case, I’m pleased to say. Given that Lily’s made four albums in seventeen years could be taken as a good sign: prioritising quality over quantity is a very good thing (although I suspect bits of life happened in between). Either way, I’d rather have four good considered albums, rather than twelve shabby ones. (Sparks incidentally, is an exception to that rule, as the brothers Mael have nothing else to do 😉 )

Nonetheless, I am pleased that I traversed the long and winding road that led me to Lily Allen. Should she make any more albums, I’ll be there (that’s one sale at least, Lily!) Should she be on the telly, I’ll be there also.

And yes, I am well aware of the track URL Badman. Given that I’ve just written a blog post about Lily Allen, I’m hoping to at least be classified as URL Benign-man. Erm.