By now she needs no introduction. Unless you’ve been living on Saturn for the past few months, the debut album of the MySpace phenomenon that is Lily “daughter of Keith” Allen has finally arrived. Currently riding high in the charts with Smile, and equipped with a razor sharp tongue, a sense of humour inherited from her dad, and a maturity that belies her years, Allen is, probably to her dismay, a marketing company’s wet dream.
But it means nothing if Alright Still isn’t up to scratch, so it’s best to say straight away it’s a blinder. Her lyrical observations, which run the gamut of useless men, shoplifters, fashion victims and exes with small penises to pimps and crack whores – sometimes in the same song – will draw comparisons with Mike Skinner.
Allen's more preoccupied with fashion magazine's favouritism for stick thin models however, fretting on album highlight Everything’s Just Wonderful: “I want to be able to eat Spaghetti Bolognese and not feel bad about it for days and days/In all the magazines they talk about weight loss/if I buy those jeans I can look like Kate Moss.”
She turns her fixation with physical inadequacy on its head on Not Big, about an ex’s failure to satisfy. It could seem hypocritical, but Alright Still is a mass of contradictions, lurching between Allen’s supremely confident putdowns and the type of navel gazing that hints at a fragile self-esteem. After a few listens you’ll be hooked.
First single LDN explores the seedier side of London life, as Allen ambles through the city. Its charm even allows her to get away with rhyming Tesco and al fresco. Complete with an irrepressible horn section, its lineage is with The Smiths, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, in creating a hilariously compulsive vignette of British life.
Knock ‘Em Out, combines a Victoria Wood-esque spiralling piano, and lyrical observations that are a repartee to The Streets Fit But You Know It. Alright Still is packed with singles, and Allen has written an accomplished debut, delivered in her authentic London drawl, that makes many current British female solo artists seem dull in comparison.
Alright Still is not perfect, the sub-Noel Gallagher-isms of Take What You Take grate, and musically the album is more pick ‘n mix than groundbreaking, but these are minor gripes. For all the pouting of Girls Aloud, the icy sophistication of Katie Melua, and the knee trembling reaction of Rachel Stevens on the male population, answers on a postcard if any of these have ever said anything vaguely memorable about life in 21st century Britain to women their age. But why be pigeonholed when you have talent to burn? It could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Rating: 4/5
Release Date: 17 July 2006
Record Label: Regal
Words by: Alex Donohue
