Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 17/07/06
Label: Regal

The danger with word-of-mouth is that the trendsetters who create the so-called tipping points can grow tired of a product before it hits the mainstream. So it seemed with Lily Allen, who was shining so brightly ahead of any releases that she could almost have burnt out with those in the know before even getting her album out. It barely even matters now - what with a Number One single under her low-slung belt - but no-one seems ready to relegate her to 'ovah' just yet.

So she's survived the hype - being an Observer Music Monthly cover star when all she'd released was a limited-edition, chart ineligible 7" of "LDN"; getting a brilliant, Smash Hits"-y cover line on The Word magazine: 'Whatever Happened To Lily Allen?' - but is the underwhelmingly entitled album all that? Well, half the tracks will soon settle comfortably inside the Top Ten, keeping sales buoyant enough for her to have a second long-player out within 18 months, on which she re-teams with Mark Ronson (with whom she's crafted the Cat Stevens-y "Littlest Things") et al and reaches her full potential. For now, it's way more than a stop-gap but sadly not the second coming (or rather, "The Stone Roses") you might have been hoping for.

The Streets-only-in-tune delivery, the cheery piano lines, the pop/ska arrangements - a more perfect summer sound you cannot imagine in 2006. And for the first three songs ("Smile", "LDN", "Knock 'Em Out") it's five-star stuff (as opposed to 5 Star stuff, of course). Alas, the mid-section ("Not Big", "Friday Night", "Shame For You" and "Friend Of Mine") goes all sub-Kelis with bad-man baiting and dull dub and only the odd sprightly chorus to elevate t(h)ings. "Everything's Just Wonderful" sounds like a snatched Girls Aloud backing track and "Take What You Take" is a pseudo-baggy abomination with the stench of Jesus Jones, but "Alfie" pops up at the end ("Puppet On A String" via the big-top band) and order is restored, brilliantly.

Behind the middle-class rude girl stylings and apparently bottomless confidence, there really is the talent to match. (Compare and contrast Lily with Amy Winehouse who, no matter how talented, could never make good on her career-crippling arrogance.) Somehow, this doesn't always extend to Lily's vocals - there's an offhand style to her delivery but beneath that there's a hesitancy, an audible self-doubt that, in truth, adds to the charm. And four smashes out of 11 tracks is more than alright. For now, anyway.

    by Emma Morgan