It's Not Me, It's You
Lily Allen
It's Not Me, It's You is the second studio album by Lily Allen, released on 4 February 2009 via Regal and Parlophone. Recorded primarily in 2008 at Eagle Rock Studios in Los Angeles, the album marks a deliberate departure from the ska and reggae-inflected sound of her debut Alright, Still, in favour of a unified electropop aesthetic built almost entirely in collaboration with producer and co-writer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with the Bird and the Bee. Unlike her debut, which had seven different producers, Allen worked exclusively with Kurstin from start to finish — a choice she described as wanting to create "one body of work" with "some sort of integrity." The album's 12 tracks run approximately 43 minutes and spawned five singles: "The Fear," "Not Fair," "Fuck You," "22," and "Who'd Have Known."
Despite its unified production, the album ranges across an eclectic set of genres — Euro-disco, country, English music hall, spaghetti-Western synth-pop, and scratchy 1930s-tinged balladry — unified by Kurstin's keyboards and sequencers and by Allen's characteristically deadpan, Cockney-accented delivery. Lyrically, the record is one of Allen's most pointed: "Everyone's at It" addresses ubiquitous drug use; "Not Fair" describes sexual dissatisfaction with frank bluntness; "Him" imagines God as a drug user; and "Fuck You" takes aim at George W. Bush and bigotry with a sing-song cheerfulness that belies its content. The album reached number one on the UK, Australian, and Canadian charts and number five on the US Billboard 200. Mother Jones called it "a terrific second album" from "an acid-tongued moralist disguised as a careless pleasure seeker," while Clash Magazine praised it as "a dangerously likeable shift" and "feverishly catchy."
It's Not Me, It's You
Lily Allen
It's Not Me, It's You is the second studio album by Lily Allen, released on 4 February 2009 via Regal and Parlophone. Recorded primarily in 2008 at Eagle Rock Studios in Los Angeles, the album marks a deliberate departure from the ska and reggae-inflected sound of her debut Alright, Still, in favour of a unified electropop aesthetic built almost entirely in collaboration with producer and co-writer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with the Bird and the Bee. Unlike her debut, which had seven different producers, Allen worked exclusively with Kurstin from start to finish — a choice she described as wanting to create "one body of work" with "some sort of integrity." The album's 12 tracks run approximately 43 minutes and spawned five singles: "The Fear," "Not Fair," "Fuck You," "22," and "Who'd Have Known."
Despite its unified production, the album ranges across an eclectic set of genres — Euro-disco, country, English music hall, spaghetti-Western synth-pop, and scratchy 1930s-tinged balladry — unified by Kurstin's keyboards and sequencers and by Allen's characteristically deadpan, Cockney-accented delivery. Lyrically, the record is one of Allen's most pointed: "Everyone's at It" addresses ubiquitous drug use; "Not Fair" describes sexual dissatisfaction with frank bluntness; "Him" imagines God as a drug user; and "Fuck You" takes aim at George W. Bush and bigotry with a sing-song cheerfulness that belies its content. The album reached number one on the UK, Australian, and Canadian charts and number five on the US Billboard 200. Mother Jones called it "a terrific second album" from "an acid-tongued moralist disguised as a careless pleasure seeker," while Clash Magazine praised it as "a dangerously likeable shift" and "feverishly catchy."