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It's hard to believe but it's been three years since the world became acquainted with Lily Allen, now after over a year of arguments, publicity pieces, and general dissention Lily is back with her new album It's Not Me It's You. Allen's last album focused on her fascination with things in real life that affected the artist; men, money, bad credit, and dissatisfaction with lovers abilities. Well this time she is back with more of the same, it's not as grim as it sounds however because the artist has matured slightly, altered her musical styling's, and adapted because of her home rise to fame.I won't begin to bore you with individual run downs of all her tracks, opting instead to give you a taste of the artist's latest work. Most readers with knowledge of the current

music scene will of course be familiar with The Fear, a track that charts Allen's rise from normal everyday life (living on a canal barge, but represented by a caravan in her video) to fame and fortune. This very "poppy" sounding track is almost like a flip back to the 1980's with electric synthesizers delivering a dated sound. The whole track itself is a thoughtful and highly addictive one, it's not as bouncy and vibrant as Allen's previous works but by no means less impressive. There is an awful lot of playing of words in this track "I look at the sun and look in the mirror" at first might sound like something a little deep and conscious, but she's actually talking about the delightful tabloid newspapers and how they are choosing to portray her on that particular day. Whichever the outcome, Allen is aware that as long as they are writing about her she's doing something right or as she puts it "I'm on to a winner".The second song that really stands out for me but not for any real wonder of written talent is the rather bluntly titled F*k You! The styling of this song is certainly not rocket science, and probably not something she spent a lot of time putting together, but this by no means makes this track less catchy. This song is possibly the one that is most likely to become a teen anthem, although it will never get the full attention it needs because of its rather rude title. I'm somehow reminded of the 1970's where catchy lyric bare tracks were all the rage. Allen addresses a lot of things she hates, opening on the subject of racism, and then moving onto other subjects that creates bigots, most notably homosexuality. The song makes me smile because it reminds me of my early days in the retail trade where "F*k you very much" was a familiar farewell I would offer my customers, said quick enough it was hard to tell it apart from thank you. Allen invites the bigots she sings about not to stay in touch, and rightly so. Not a masterpiece, but something that is incredibly cheerful considering its dark subject. In our office a particularly grim few moments are soon overcome by playing this song, even our older staff members enjoy it although they try to be offended.Onto Allen's favourite subject and that's sex, this bizarre oddity sounds a bit like some bad 70's TV western show. In Not Fair, Allen talks about this amazing man who has blown her away, phoning her to check she is okay, buying her gifts, and telling her he loves her several times a day. Trouble being when it's time for bed he is not so attentive, choosing to please himself and leaving her very much out in the cold and desperately in need of satisfaction. In some ways this is as well put together as The Fear, the song could so easily be about something else, allowing younger listeners to enjoy the song without needing to understand its underlying message. This is the track that will have a large percentage of the female audience relating to Allen's plight.Most likely to be the second track from the album to be released is Everyone's At It a song that warns of the dangers of drugs. Again harking back to the 80's there are big screeching instrumental moments in which you feel like you have fallen into a timewarp. Allen herself one to be fairly open about her experiences of drugs explains in the song how it can be easy if you're in certain social groups how you can find yourself up close and personal with drugs. In some ways it's the very best track on the album but because the first time you hear it you might not be swung by its power it will always be a bit of a wild card.The remaining tracks I Could Say, 22, Back To The Start, Never Gonna Happen, Who'd Have Known, Chinese, Him and He Wasn't There tackle the breakdown of relationships , some of which have been very public. While Allen tries to be the big showgirl she is exorcising so many demons here, miscarriages, very public birthdays, publicity all get touched upon. It's Not Me It's You will be argued as being the same old ground as Alright Still (Allen's previous album) there is a heightened maturity in the artist, and I believe a much better rounded album. If the critics leave it alone it has the potential to become so much more than her previous album. This time the samples of other tracks like the theme from Emmanuelle used in the track Littlest Things, are all missing every single track (accept downloadable extras) is unique in every single way. It could be so easy for this album to fail like many unique sounding artists, but I very much doubt this will. Its odd an odd thing to say about Allen but when you compare this album to recent female artists Alisha Dixon, Beyonce, Gabriella Cilmi, and Duffy in terms of maturity and subject matter Allen outstrips them all.

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