Sheezus- Lily Allen

Lily Allen's return to the world of music has been a long awaited one for me. I was a huge fan of her ska pop debut Alright, Still. The wit and personality she brought to that album was amazing, and the characters and situations she conveyed were entirely real and relate-able. It's Not Me, It's You distanced itself from the ska sound that was part of her first album, and delved more into the pop vein, but still retained Lily's razor sharp wit and unfiltered personality. Her personality and willingness to say whatever she feels needs to be said is really what separates her from her peers (What am I saying? In the world of female pop singers, she has no peers). Where others might be concerned with offending someone, Lily Allen is frank and honest; I may not always agree with her, but I can respect that she is not willing to sit back and agree and not disagree for fear of offending someone. For example, one thing I can't agree with is that Sheezus is "rubbish".

The self titled opening track is an amazing album opener, as well as one of the album's strongest songs. She portrays a power hungry pop diva bent on destroying her competition, with an amazingly creepy beat and atmosphere surrounding it all (that video is pure nightmare fuel in some spots). Clearly tongue in cheek, a technique Lily Allen has mastered on this album. After the opener, L8 CMMR expands Lily's story, and is an ode to her husband. After that, I have to admit, the album starts to slow down a little bit. This is more a fault of the sequencing of the album more than anything. The album starts to drift a little too far into the pop direction near the middle of the album, and I feel that breaking up these songs could have easily fixed this. However, the songs here are brilliant, especially 'Close Your Eyes', and the weird carnival sound/ New Orleans feel of 'As Long As I Got You'. I feel like the only weak song in this section is 'Air Balloon'. It may have been just too poppy for me.

After this section of the album, 'URL Badman' puts things back into high gear. This brostep infused attack on the internet culture of tearing other people down may be my favorite song on the album. And yes, the irony of me commenting on a song with this subject matter while reviewing her album is not lost on me. From here on out, the album is gold. Lily Allen really gets back to what she's great at here: social commentary and character assassination. The album ends with the beautiful closer 'Somewhere Only We Know'.

All in all, this is a triumphant return to music for Lilly Allen. The album may be a little uneven, but mainly due to the album's sequencing. The songs on it are, for the most part, what we've come to expect from Lily: great, witty pop songs that make you think.

Out of a total of five stars, I give this:

Check back in a few days when I look at Santana's newest effort, Corazón.

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