You can play this game with me, but you know you're gonna lose

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

08/10/06 : Alright, Still - Lily Allen



The lass has done some very decent stuff over the years and this is where it all started - I know and like this album, so I'm very pleased to see it pop up.  "LDN" and "Smile" are probably the ones you know, but they're all pretty decent.  I think "Friday Night" is probably my favourite track featuring some amusing couplets ("It's quarter to when we get to the front - girl on the guest list, dressed like a ..." and "In the club, make our way to the bar - good dancing love, but you should have worn a bra" always make me laugh).  She doesn't go easy on any of her many targets across the album - an ex gets several songs aimed at him and "Alfie" is all about how rubbish her brother is (he seems to have turned out OK, but I can imagine he wasn't too happy the first time he heard it).  It's not going to save the world, but it's fun, breezy pop with intelligent and catty lyrics and a nice summer vibe to it - and some times that's just what you need.  She looks soooo young on the cover - and it's another one we own, taking us to four for the year.

We're at #5 this week on her twelfth week of a 71 week run - it debuted at #2 but never made it to the top.  The rest of the top five this week were The Killers (a new entry), Evanescence (another new entry), Scissor Sisters and Razorlight and we have one more new entry in the top ten with Daniel O'Donnell (#10) - thankfully, once again I've managed to avoid him!  

Wikipedia has quite a large entry, but most of it is about Lily's efforts in the run-up to the album - she was definitely one of the MySpace generation.  I did learn something though because I wasn't aware that this album is considered one of the worst victims of the loudness wars - I just assumed it was given a rough sound on purpose.  The critics were mostly very nice about it except for the one that said it was "nothing more than pop for people who hate pop music" and "phony music for people who can't let go of their inhibitions".  Oooh - someone was in a bad mood, weren't they?  It did well commercially over here, selling over a million copies - I was surprised to see it also did OK in the US, getting to #20.  I suspect some of the references might have not been fully understood over there.

"Customers also listened to" Kate Nash, Estelle, Duffy and Nelly Furtado - a slightly strange mix.  All of whom I can live without, but I do like a bit of Lily - this is a bit rough and ready compared to her later stuff but now I know I can just blame the loudness wars.

01/10/06 - Impressive, but not particularly enjoyable
15/10/06 - Perfectly fine and perfectly unnecessary

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