FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Lily Allen - Alright, Still
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IT seems hard to believe that…
Lily Allen’s debut album, Alright, Still, is fifteen on 13th July! I remember it coming out and being struck on the album from the start. After being rejected by several record labels, Allen signed to London Records, who eventually lost interest in her, leading her to meet production duo Future Cut and sign to Regal Recordings. It is amazing, also, to think that there was not big interest in her from the start, as she has an amazing sound and songwriting style. I like how broad Alright, Still is. With mixings of Pop, Hip-Hop, Ska and Reggae, it is an album that appealed to a wide listenership. I will bring in a couple of positive reviews for Allen’s incredible debut album soon. Smile, and LDN are two bright and huge songs that were pretty much everywhere in 2006. Although it is quite hard to find Alright, Still on vinyl, I would encourage people to seek it out (Allen has discussed why she has not repressed her albums to vinyl). There are so many great tracks on the album. Apart from the big hits, Knock 'Em Out, Not Big, and Shame for You are also clear highlights. Alright, Still debuted at number-two in the U.K., selling 62,701 copies in its first week. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it triple-platinum on 14th March, 2008. It is a fantastic album that everyone should pick up! Lily Allen released her fourth studio album, No Shame, in 2018 – it was justly nominated for the Mercury Prize. Alright, Still was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 50th Grammy Awards; I am surprised it was not shortlisted for a Mercury Prize in 2006 (maybe it was released too close to the cut-off date for inclusion). This is what Pitchfork wrote when they reviewed Lily Allen’s incredible debut:
“But to say that Alright, Still is interesting because it's an accomplished mainstream pop debut made by somebody who started out with broadband and an internet addiction is perhaps too facile a reading. The other day a friend was talking about a development unique to this era-- the differences between peoples' carefully cultivated online personas and their real-life selves. One might inform the other, or reject it, or reform it, or cannibalize it completely, but there's always a push/pull at the center, and the task of managing and reconciling all that on a personal level is a relatively new thing. It's just a hunch, but I think maybe one of the bonus reasons Alright, Still is compelling is because it inadvertently makes gestures to that whole phenomenon.
It's a through-the-looking-glass trajectory that begins with a MySpacer who's got great tunes, good stories, and a funny way with commas, and it ends with a slickly produced pop album that isn't all that far apart from pretty much any other UK female pop singer in terms of packaging and presentation. Somewhere between those two points is truth, somewhere behind it all is real-life messiness, and I think people are enjoying figuring it out, not to mention having another familiar co-ordinate from which to put it all together.
Musically, ska, reggae, and calypso are her major touchpoints. From the dub-inflected kiss-off track "Not Big" to the skanking "Friend of Mine", there's not a lot here that doesn't use a horn sample or a guitar chug as its launching off point. As evidenced by the poison-penned "Smile" and the MySpace hit "LDN", Allen's appeal is in the way she combines those spacious, rolling sounds with A+ pop structures. When she operates outside of that comfort zone, the results are generally still of a high order, if not a bit more erratic. "Littlest Things" is a supple piano-tickler that provides one of Allen's sweetest lyrical moments while simultaneously leaving Ms. Dynamite in the dust on the R&B balladeering front, while "Everything's Just Wonderful" is the exuberant bit of cocktail pop that Geri Halliwell unsuccessfully spent her entire solo career trying to procure. Less favorably, the Madchester-flavored anthem-by-numbers "Take What You Take" reveals what Allen might sound like if she ever decided to make a run for the title of Britain's female Robbie Williams. (Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also the source of her weakest lyric.)”.
I will wrap things up soon. Before then, I want to source from one more review. AllMusic observed the following when they listened to Alright, Still:
“Like most British pop, Lily Allen's debut album, Alright, Still, overflows with impeccably shiny, creative productions. However, Allen attempts to set herself apart from the likes of Rachel Stevens, Natasha Bedingfield, and Girls Aloud with a cheeky, (mostly) amusing vindictive streak in her lyrics that belies the sugarcoated sounds around them. You know exactly what she means when she says her ex is "not big whatsoever" on "Not Big"; later, she revels in being the one that got away on "Shame for You." However, this nice-then-naughty approach is at its best on Alright, Still's singles, which open the album in a one-two-three punch. Another ex-boyfriend kiss-off, "Smile," has a silky verse melody that just barely conceals her spite, which finally spills over on the chorus: "At first, when I see you cry/It makes me smile." But even here, Allen keeps her revenge sweet -- she sounds like she's singing about how ice cream or puppies or being in love makes her smile, which gives the song an extra sting. "Knock 'Em Out" is an even sassier, more stylized battle of the sexes than the Streets' "Fit But You Know It" (and could very well be the response from the girl in Mike Skinner's song).
And "LDN" is a glorious summer confection, even if "it's all lies" underneath the Lord Kitchener sample and "sun is in the sky" chorus. Alright, Still's production and arrangements, courtesy of Greg Kurstin, Mark Ronson, and Futurecut, balance Allen's tart observations with a backdrop of pop-grime beats and freewheeling, feel-good ska that makes her sound playful and kittenish instead of just catty. While the album doesn't exactly go downhill after its opening salvo, it does lose some steam, particularly with "Take What You Take," a song that feels out of character with the rest of Alright, Still because it's uncharacteristically dull, and "Alfie," which falls especially flat as the album's final song. Allen softens her tough-girl pose more successfully on "Little Things," a ballad that celebrates the mundane moments of a dying relationship ("You'd take me out shopping and all we'd buy was trainers/As if we ever needed anything to entertain us") and "Everything's Just Wonderful," where "bureaucrats that won't give me a mortgage" are the targets of her ire instead of a previous (or soon-to-be previous) boyfriend. As with Nellie McKay (another young, opinionated woman eager to make herself the maverick in her chosen style of music), the dichotomy between Allen's sweet sound and ironic lyrics could be seen as either witty or clever-clever. Still, enough of Alright, Still works -- as pure pop and on the meta level Allen aims for -- to make the album a fun, summery fling, and maybe more. [The U.S. version of Alright, Still includes a remix of "Smile" and the 50 Cent parody "Nan You're a Window Shopper" as well as U-MYX software, which allows listeners to make their own remixes of "Smile" and "Knock 'Em Out" -- not an essential addition, but a surprisingly fun one nonetheless.]”.
Go and grab Alright, Still on vinyl is you can, as it is a wonderful album of many different moods and sounds. I think that it remains Allen’s best album. I feel that it is one of the best albums from the first decade of the twenty-first century. If you cannot find Alright, Still on vinyl then go and stream it or buy it on C.D. After almost fifteen years in the world, Alright, Still, remains…
SUCH a confident, busy and exciting album.