Lily Allen is often very misunderstood because she is bold lyrically, but underneath the catchy pop-indie is usually someone who is really and genuinely bold, but yes, also offensive at times. No Shame therefore is a perfect title for her newest album.
Perhaps the youthful energy she brings is what matters, with some generally eclectic keys and vocals. Still, her new release begins both pleasingly catchy and too poppy, with “Come On Then”, where she perhaps rightly criticizes critics, laid on what are almost sadly overreaching simple beats. She has always had a nice voice, and that remains from track one to fourteen, but on “Trigger Bang (Feat. Giggs)”, and “What Are You Waiting For?”, she just loses some of the charm she has when the music is more eclectic than poppy, so the lyrics ought not be controversial here, where in the past, maybe she crossed lines, but the music suffers a little.
In all honesty, Allen’s maturity is shown in titles like “Your Choice (Feat. Burna Boy)” and “Lost My Mind”, but also some level of machismo irony on “Apples” and “Waste”, even in the music in the final song “Cake”. Which is confusing, because numbers like “Pushing Up Daisies”, “Family Man”, and “Three” are emotional, bright, and chimey. Even “Everything to Feel Something” is bold and nice at the same time. Finally, “My One” rounds out the eclectic british energy side well.
What happened here in the more angry songs then? Such as the opener or closer. It is not that they are bad, quite the opposite, most are great, just harder to like lyrically or feel good listening to. Bottom line, much like in her other consciously bold work, the good outways the bad in No Shame.
