Lily Allen - Sheezus

The career of Lily Allen has been regarded by many as proof of the current state of the music industry being in dire circumstances. Critics of the newly(ish?)wed have never quite gotten over her having famous parents, and even her most ardent fans must admit she could fill several years' worth of gossip magazines with her feuds. Whilst that particular trait's killed off many careers before they could even begin - isn't that right, Miss Banks? - Allen's has survived and continues to blossom for one good reason: her brand of pop music is excellent.

Previous albums Alright, Still and It's Not Me, It's You have been packed with so much humour, fine songwriting and heart-on-her-sleeve honesty that they've rightly both rocketed to #1 and remain strong arguments for her lineage in inheriting the UK's all-important Queen of Pop crown. On Sheezus, she - seriously or otherwise - seeks to reaffirm that: "Second best will never cut it for the divas/ Give me that crown, bitch, I wanna be Sheezus". And if you can just forgive that awful title and not quite get your hopes up for another lead single of The Fear or Smile's quality, then you might just support that claim.

If there were evidence of Allen struggling to get back into the groove of being a proper popstar then her TV performances of singles Air Balloon - on Graham Norton - and Our Time - on Alan Carr - are good places to start. The former, in particular, finds Allen trying too hard to get a hook some airplay, and is a rather vague bag of nonsense about getting high. Her nananaing and teeth-grinding synths try to portray the track as light and fun but her performance of it looked pained and as though she knew she was capable of better. Perhaps a better route to success would be to release a track to a trendy cable show aimed at adolescents? Step forward 'L8 CMMR' and its canny text speech, with a far less daft structure and a naturally catchy composition. And if there were ever a time to realise that the song's probably a way of saying her husband satisfies her in the bedroom, then it is whilst writing a review about it four months later.

Having always been fond of her more sentimental and chilled tracks like Chinese, I Could Say or Littlest Things, eventual single 'Our Time' came as a welcome surprise after all of the controversy surrounding the first two. An ode to stupid nights out, it's gorgeously restrained and allows room for her mundane-romantic lyricism (she's always had an air of John Cooper Clarke) to fluorish and beguile ("Take my hand now, you're coming over/ It doesn't matter you can sleep on my sofa"). A funk groove is another fine choice to allow her more cutting remarks about the duldrums of networking and celebrity culture to cut that little sharper on 'Insincerely Yours': "Whatever happened to the real DJs, cause the chick you've paid can't mix for shit/ She's looking good with her headphones on, with her Beats by Dre/ She's so legit". Interestingly the names she drops here are done with due care of taking the time to actually apologise to them afterwards; Cara DeLevigne and Rita Ora have both spoken of their satisfaction with the fact that Allen means only to use them as examples of media spotlights, whilst this Jourdan Dunn (?) person responded like a dick on Twitter, so two out of three ain't bad. And then there's probably the record's best and most timely critique; 'URL Badman' aims squarely at the internet's hordes of unemployed, vicious trolls masquerading as Vice journalists. Minor observation, but it's curious how she references Drake here when the melody bears slight resemblance to From Time. 

For all of these positives, though, there's always been one track that just really, inexplicably irritates me per album, and following Alfie and Not Fair in that vain is 'As Long As I Got You', a totally out-of-place hoedown with a hint of Primal Scream thrown in. Icky. And then there's the wholly unnecessary 'Silver Spoon' which is just whiney nonsense concerning the criticism launched at her about her wealth that's neither astute nor witty. I suppose I should address 'Hard Out Here', the first cut from the record, too, and for the record I thought the backlash over her backing dancers being black was both laughable (since there're women of various races dancing) and woefully missing the point (about women of ALL colour being marginalised and sexualised). The song itself? A perfectly fine and inanely catchy pop track most likely concocted to attract the most controversy possible. But then I quite like my pop culture detractors to be loud and noticeable.

Well, it's a sharp downturn from the other albums and is trying to say perhaps a bit too much all at the same time, but there is still enough of her core charm and canny ability to call bullshit on popular trends that makes this a worthwhile listen; it'd just be nice if the singles were stronger.

Rating: 7/10
Highlights: Our Time; Close Your Eyes; L8 CMMR; URL Badman; Insincerely Yours
Avoid: Air Balloon; Silver Spoon; As Long As I Got You

Artwork Watch: I like those plant pots.
Up next: Katy B