164: Alright, Still, by Lily Allen

Lily Allen (United Kindom)
Alright, Still (2006)
11 tracks, 37 minutes
Spotify ∙ iTunes

Pop pop pop. This is pop all the way through, in both its popularity and its musical style. There’s nothing particularly challenging in the music but it is completely infectious. The tracks from this album were absolutely everywhere the summer that this album came out, and it’s easy to see why.

Although the music itself may sound quite simple, it’s not bereft of stylistic variety. A lot of the album – including the most famous singles ‘Smile’ and ‘LDN’ – has a relaxed reggae lilt to it, and there are elements from hip-hop, R’n’B and soul in there to keep the poppiness from getting too monotonous. There’s also a good and wide-ranging use of samples here, and not the usual sort for a mid-00s pop singer either, including snatches from Earl King’s ‘Big Chief’ and Dawn Penn’s ‘No No No’ turning into valuable melodic hooks and making the music nerds’ ears tingle.

Obviously a big draw for Lily Allen’s work is her lyrics, and on Alright, Still she really established her reputation for angry and bitter lyrics. She still somehow makes them lighthearted and fun, though, and this is the exact opposite of a depressing listen. Her stories of failed relationships, sexual harassment and just the general shittiness of life are told with a deadpan, ironic humour that feels super relatable and humanising, without any flowery, poetic wit to bog it down.

Although I’ve listed the album as having 11 tracks up at the top – and that’s the official count – that’s not what I have in my own iTunes library. That’s because, uniquely in my collection, I think, I got so annoyed by a terrible song that I just completely straight-up deleted it from my computer and my life and basically refused to accept its existence. That song is the last one on the album, ‘Alfie’, written about her now-Game of Thrones star brother. She wrote it when she was younger and I think it really shows – juvenile lyrics, annoying nursery-rhyme lyrics and the worst kind of bubblegum pop. Awful.

Regardless, for me, this definitely-10-track-and-no-more album is a great one. Apparently, when the album came out, Stylus Magazine referred to the album negatively as ‘nothing more than pop for people who hate pop music,’ and I say…well, yeah. But that’s a good thing! It’s a really good example of just how groovy pop music can be in and of itself, to the degree that its popularity can reach beyond into the ears of those that wouldn’t otherwise be fussed. Alright, Still doesn’t need that amount of thought put into it: just stick it on and enjoy.