Her debut single LDN was released as a 500 copy limited edition vinyl on April 24th, 2006 in the UK. It was followed on July 10th, 2006 by Smile , which spent two weeks at number one and her debut album 'Alright, Still' was released in July 2006. The album reached number 2 in the charts. LDN was re-released as a single on September 25th, 2006.
Lily's sound is ska-pop, with a dash of social commentary. Easy listening yet thought provoking at the same time, so they say. Her vocal style is casual and, at times, whimsical - in a similar manner perhaps to Mike Skinner (The Streets). Lily has been known to have many celebrity admirers, including Justin Timberlake, The-P, Jo Whiley of Radio One and the actress Keira Knightley.
Over the past few months Lily’s name has scarcely left the singles charts or the tabloid gossip columns, and as her first major tour arrives in Norwich, excitement is high. A quick glance around the venue shows that countless girls have adopted Lily’s trademark image; pop music’s enfant terrible has quickly built up a faithful. But most of the crowd appears more curious than convinced; curious as to whether the lady can live up to the legend, or whether her reputation has sped ahead of her.
More ladette than lady, she finally appears on stage in her distinctive frock and trainers combination. And with a mockney swagger completing the image, the crowds are content that she at least looks the part – it’s just everything else that’s lacking.
Uncharacteristically, Lily appears shy as she steps up to the mic. She nervously greets her audience and waits for her backing band to lead her into the opening song. One-thousand strong gigs still appear to faze her, but this is hardly surprising; it must be disorientating to be thrust so suddenly from the favourite page of MySpace to the giddy heights of the pop charts.
But as her set unfolds, there is very little to raise her confidence. The calypso bubbles of Everything’s Just Wonderful are flattened by the warbling bass, which also drowns out the vicious rhyming couplets of Friday Night, and new single Littlest Things is left limp and lacking emotional potency. While the text-speak fable LDN and tale of tainted love Smile get a moderate reception, her performance remains lacklustre and uninspired.
And much less can be said of her stage performance. Even as she covers songs by Keane and The Kooks, Lily does not look like she is enjoying herself. Between songs her quips come across as more crass than comic and true interaction with the audience is rare.
As she leaves the stage her swagger has deflated into a slumped shuffle. She’s pretty and she’s vacant, but it seems there’s something else missing. The camera phone paparazzi have got their snaps of the provocative princess, and her fan boys will have caught a glimpse of their bad girl wet dream, but the music fans are left feeling thoroughly unsatisfied.
Through her vindictive blog and acerbic outbursts Lily has had her say on everyone: insults have flown in the direction of Cheryl Tweedy, Kylie Minogue and even Bob Geldof. Amid all the noise, no-one has had the chance to have their say on Lily, so I’ll take my chance now; Lily Allen is pitifully overrated and dreadfully unimpressive.
Of course it’ll take much more than a dull gig to curb the tabloid’s love-to-hate fascination with Lily. But maybe it’s about time that they listened more to Lily’s music and a little less to her rants – they’ll find much less to write about.
