Lily Allen It's Not Me, It's You CD

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Personnel: Greg Kurstin (keyboards, bass guitar).
Audio Mixer: Greg Kurstin.
Audio Remasterer: Geoff Pesche.
On her 2009 sophomore album, IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU, feisty English pop singer Lily Allen sticks with the strengths of her lauded debut, presenting a collection of songs lined with biting lyrics and catchy pop hooks. While Allen tones down the heavily accented British-isms found on ALRIGHT, STILL, she amps up both atmosphere and melody, resulting in "The Fear," a sweeping synth-pop number, and the dreamy "Who'd Have Known," both of which are enhanced by producer Greg Kurstin (The Bird and the Bee). Those concerned that Ms. Allen might be getting too refined can take comfort in the sassy (and slightly twangy) "Not Fair" and the cheerily aggressive "F**k You," tracks that reveal that, although she has matured, the cheeky vocalist isn't completely ready to play nice just yet. Though artists such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga have circled Allen's turf, IT'S NOT ME proves that the petite performer can ably defend her territory.
At the height of Pulp's fame, Jarvis Cocker channeled all his existential dread about celebrity into a chilling epic called "The Fear." Ten years later, Lily Allen -- the funniest British pop star since Jarvis and perhaps the best -- uses the same title to explore paralyzing fame, but instead of turning inward, Lily deflects, pushing all her anxiety into a Paris Hilton wannabe, a "weapon of massive consumption" that we know isn't Lily herself because this girl "doesn't care about clever." Lily, of course, cares very, very much about clever: it's how she defines herself as an artist and as a persona. Her quips are precise in her lyrics and savage in public, as evidenced when she drunkenly baited her co-presenter Elton John at a British awards show. Such displays tend to obscure her considerable skills as a storyteller, a gift that also gets buried beneath tabloid headlines that place her among pop tarts and princesses. Lily is attracted and repelled by fame, adoring the limelight but neither the company or how it forces personal problems to the forefront, and all these contradictions fuel her second album, It's Not Me, It's You.
Like many a bright pop star before her, Allen is feeling a little bit older than her 23 years, knowing that the landscape of her life is changing, and she's dreading her 30s, which still feel very far away. Lily doesn't state this outright, of course: she puts it into the character sketch of "22," just like how she deals with the blizzard of cocaine and pills on "Everyone's at It," registering her sneering disdain for a social scene she's outgrowing yet not quite ready to leave behind. Far from being a crutch, this narrative distancing is Lily's strength: unlike so many of her too-sensitive peers, she doesn't indiscriminately spill emotions onto the page, she picks her targets, choosing to reveal personal secrets we already know -- tellingly, she never addresses her 2008 miscarriage, but happily serves up her dysfunctional relationships with her parents, something that has provided endless column inches in gossip rags. If there's an element of Lily picking low-hanging fruit here and on "The Fear" and on the George W. Bush kiss-off "F*** You" -- or even "Not Fair," a cousin to "Not Big," where Allen laments a lover who is perfect in every way except his inability to make her scream -- the key to any story is how it's told, and telling is Lily's strength, how she ferrets out bypassed details or delivers a well-worn punchline. It's Not Me pushes this talent to the forefront, in part because she works with only one collaborator here: Greg Kurstin, half of the Bird and the Bee and responsible for several cuts on Alright, Still but not the big hits "Smile" and "LDN," which were produced by Mark Ronson. Without Ronson, Lily isn't quite so glitzy or glammy, she even flirts witRolling Stone (p.63) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t sounds fantastic. With producer Greg Kurstin at her side, Allen has gotten more musically eclectic, jettisoning the thumping rock-steady of ALRIGHT, STILL without sacrificing catchiness or dance-floor bounce."
Spin (p.78) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU dials down the sass in favor of sincere self-reflection and a greater grasp of morning-after consequences."
Entertainment Weekly (p.54) - "[H]er most wounded musings are paired with serious hooks....She pokes excellent fun at her own material-girl id on 'The Fear'..." -- Grade: B+
Billboard (p.37) - "Allen is probably better (and funnier) detailing her disdain for the party scene than she was describing her love of it."
Q (Magazine) (p.92) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Allen keeps it reliably real. Music's a richer place for her telling it as it is."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he centrally heated electro-pop of 'Chinese' describes the coupled-up joy of TV and a takeaway, while Allen's voice breaks into a genuine smile on 'Who'd Have Known'..."
Blender (Magazine) (p.60) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "She offsets an assault of cheekiness with confessions so intimate, they could have been drafted during an A.A. meeting."
Pitchfork (Website) - "This is perceptive pop for a consumer culture OD'ing on consumer culture and Houdini investments....Her plight -- bare, self-conscious, petty, fearful -- is familiar."
Clash (magazine) (p.101) - "IT'S NOT ME IT'S YOU is a dangerously likeable shift for the girl who continues to wear her heart in her songs....Britain's mouthy pop-idol returns triumphantly and with the brawny guts to stick with what she knows best."