Alright, Still

Like Blondie circa 1981, Allen breathes needed fresh air into the game.

Lyrically, Allen spins the street-slang tales of blowjobs and booze told with varying success by everyone from The Streets to Shampoo.

What's amazing about Alright, Still is how similar the girl with the blog is to the girl with the hit record. [Mar 2007, p.129]

Sheâ??s funky, confident and fun, and thatâ??s just on the first song.

For now, it's way more than a stop-gap but sadly not the second coming you might have been hoping for.

As much of a cliché as it is, you're either going to love Allen or hate her.

A seeping, heaving summer album through and through.

An incisive and funny introduction to the 21-year-old English singer.

A blast from start to finish. [Aug 2006, p.102]

Only two songs ring false. [Feb/Mar 2007]

Pop music needed saving and in Lily Allen we've found just the woman to do it.

If the pop dreams get slightly tarnished by the graffiti put-downs of 'Not Big' (her ex has a 'size problem') and 'Alfie' (her brother smokes too much dope) then that's not too worrying. With a personality this size, this isn't the last time you'll be hearing from her.

Allen has fused together a uniquely acidic brand of pop, and the icing on the cake is that brutally barbed tongue.

In terms of a debut record-- and especially given the weight of expectation placed on her to deliver something special-- Alright, Still isnâ??t anything else but a fantastic success.

The pop album of the year.

A simple, smart pop record by one of the most charismatic young talents to come along in a while.

The music deliberately sits somewhere between glossy and unobtrusive. It shimmers enough to mask Allen's tepid singing voice but remains far enough away to allow her largest asset -- her snappy personality -- to take charge.

The overall effect is not dissimilar to Sugababes, only with added adult content. [Aug 2006, p.111]

She never sounds like she's trying too hard.

The production on tracks like "Shame For You" and "Alfie" is fantastic, and there are plenty of catchy melodies and clever samples, but Allen is a poser who lacks charisma, bites off of everyone else, and is so sickeningly contemptuous of everyone but herself that it makes the pretty, melancholy piano-and-drum-loop ballad "Littlest Things" seem like a farce.

Alright's sparkly high-life beats... all gleam with upmarket panache. But strong medicine always requires a little sugar. [Feb 2007, p.82]

Alright Still is nothing more than pop for people who hate pop music, poptimist Quorn, phony music for people who can't let go of their inhibitions (indie-bitions?) and have to have their music classified as REAL.

A great summer record it remains, even in the dead of winter.

The female Mike Skinner? She's far, far better than that.

This may just be [the] finest pop break-up album since [Justin] Timberlake's Justified. [Aug 2006, p.95]