Lily Allen - It's Not me its you

Lily Allen's second cd has come out just as Lily decided to share her occasionally controversial opinions on a variety of issues/people/world events. Funny how that happens. Lily's been away for awhile and the world is awash with sound-a-like female singers so she needs to step up her game.
'Everyone's at it' starts off the cd with a preachy song about how everyone is doing drugs (both illegal and legal) which is largely annoying in content but her voice sounds as good as ever. 'The Fear' was the first single and is a return to form and is a great catchy pop song about celebrity culture. 'Not Fair' is a song about not being satisfied by a boyfriend in bed and bounces along like a country hoedown. '22' addresses the unfairness about being 30 and society viewing you as being on the scrapheap. Lily has a good turn of phrase but sometimes her songs feel like they are trying too hard. She works best when her songs sound effortless, skipping along lightly with good turns of phrase and not too many 'mockney' vocals. 'Back to the start' feels like a Kate Nash song and is merely okay. 'Never gonna happen' is Lily addressing her ex saying he needs to let her go and is one of the weaker songs on the cd. 'Fuck you' is based around what sounds like 'Raindrops keep falling on my head' and has naughty words on it. 'Who'd have known' is a rip-off/pastiche of the Take That song 'Shine' and is quite lovely in spite of/because of it. The line in it that "even though it's moving forward, its just the right side of awkward" is one of my favourite on the cd. 'Chinese' is about the feeling of being in a relationship and enjoying the small pleasures involved in spending a quiet weekend together. 'Him' is Lily speculating about what God is like and mentions the 9/11 terrorist attacks which despite a couple of clever lines doesn't quite work.
I think this is a good second cd with Lily trying to find her voice a bit more and her vocals not being quite so forced. Some of her 'issue' based songs don't work well but there are a few good songs on here. Still much better than her ITV show.
My Lily Allen anecdote involves me going to Argos to buy a barbeque for work and seeing a few paparazzi (paparazzo?) outside the shop waiting for someone and me looking around trying to figure out who they were waiting for. I thought it might have been her but wasn't really sure. Poor Lily was only trying to buy some kind of lawnmower but ended up in the paper with a few quotes about 'grass'. It must mess you up at least a little bit even if you do court the press to further your career from time to time.