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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Capitol Records
Salesrank: 930
Released: January 30, 2007 |
| Our Price: $5.14 |
| Used Price: $3.37 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Alright, Still Track Listing:
1. Smile
2. Knock 'Em Out
3. LDN
4. Everything's Just Wonderful
5. Not Big
6. Friday Night
7. Shame For You
8. Littlest Things
9. Take What You Take
10. Friend Of Mine
11. Alfie
12. Nan You're A Window Shopper (US Bonus Track)
13. Smile (Version Revisited) (US Bonus Track)
Editorial Review:
Japanese version of her debut album includes two bonus tracks, 'Cheryl Tweedy' and 'Absolutely Nothing'. Debut album by this critically adored British female pop vocalist. 13 tracks including the single 'Smile'. It's been a whirlwind couple of months for Lily Allen. After signing a low key deal with Regal, late last year, no one could have predicted how quickly she'd make an impression on the nation. Lily, like many artists, started posting tracks on her Myspace site in November 2005, so she could gauge what people thought. The response has been phenomenal. Listens on her Myspace site now are staggering, over 2 million and rising. The support from the press, radio and TV has been fantastic. She is already a 'red top' favorite with her honesty and sharp tongue, but also has fans across the digital world and within cult publications. Regal. 2006.
Description of Alright, Still:
Being, as she is, the daughter of prominent British actor Keith Allen, the cynics could easily dismiss the rise of Lily Allen as an act of backroom nepotism, a talent-free starlet helped to the stage by the right connections. But one listen to her debut album Alright, Still dispels any doubts about young Ms. Allen's star quality. Possessed of a feisty wit and taste for urban storytelling that should see her compared to Mike "The Streets" Skinner, these 11 tracks of sunshine-friendly reggae-pop cover topics including frustrating potential closing-time suitors ("Knock 'Em Out"), being happy when your ex is having a bad time ("Smile"), and having a little brother who likes a bit of a smoke--and not just of the tobacco variety ("Alfie"). Wisely, however, Allen doesn't let the grittiness of the subject matter tarnish the golden pop suss of the songs, a suite of gleaming productions by names including Mark Ronson and Gwen Stefani collaborator Greg Kurstin that take inspiration from the lighter end of reggae and vintage rocksteady. Doubtless some corners of the press will pillory her as a poor role model, but there's an engaging honesty to the likes of "LDN"--a love song to a city filled with teenage muggers, pimps, and crack whores, narrated by someone who's cycling because "the filth took away my license." Like father, like daughter. --Louis Pattison
Alright, Still Reviews:
Refreshing 
2008-06-25 - A Myspace glory story, Lily started posting songs on her page and become a phenomenon; though I have to think being the daughter of a well known actor in England, probably didn't hurt any promotion pocketbooks - still she deserves what she gets for coming up with not only a brilliant little album but what that is actually fun, catchy, bitter, bitchy and most importantly really original.
Combining a rocking pop backdrop, the sugary sweet melodies are the backdrop for cutting and slicing apart ex-lovers, arch rivals and complete towns - all done in a slight Cockney accent and boisterous delivery. The first single "Smile" hit the #1 spot in the UK ("At first when I see you cry/ it makes me smile...I feel bad for a while but then I just smiiiile") but that's only the starting point of Alright, Still -
the sassiness in "Everything's Just Wonderful" where the beaurocrats won't help her get a mortgage, an ode to her pot smoking brother "Alfie", (set to a hippity little ska beat and sing along lyrics) and a love affair with London seen through the realities of big city life on "LDN" is probably my favorite on the album - I don't think a domestic release has been done it but if you find a copy of this, buy it. Four Bradleys...
No, it isn't your headphones ... it really is distorted 
2008-06-10 - I like almost every song on this CD, but it can nonetheless be painful to listen to because the entire album sounds distorted due to the choice made when mastering to go with loudness over quality. A shame, really ... it's a great listen otherwise.
Lilly Allen's LDN music composed by colombian 
2008-06-10 - I was thrilled when I listened the "LDN" track from this album and I recognized the music from an old recording from Colombia, South America called "Cogeme la caña" loosely translated as "Grab my sugar cane stick" recorded in 1954 by colombian record label Discos Fuentes. [...].
Jaime Jaramillo
Alright, but....
2008-05-30 - In the movie SAW, the serial killer Jigsaw calls one of his victims, "Angry and apathetic, but mostly just pathetic." That description would fall pretty aptly on Lilly Allen, or at least on the character she's portraying in this album.
I don't know much about the lass, who initially caught my attention with an effortless, liquid rendition of "LDN" at the '08 Prince's Trust concert, except that she's the offspring of a very well-heeled British actor. Thus, her decidedly punkish, working-class persona, complete with Cockney accent, may be a complete fake. I've no clue. I can only go on what I hear, and from a strictly musical standpoint what I hear is pretty good.
Allen has a lovely, just a bloody lovely voice, not merely pleasing but equipped with a subtly modulating resonance of the type Britney Spears probably dreams about between spells in the looney bin. She also has a wickedly subversive sense of humor, showcased on such songs as "Knock `em Out" and "Not Big", and a great observational eye, making most of the songs either laugh out loud funny or good for a nod and a thoughtful chuckle. The production is thoroughly professional, so much so the whole album seems to sparkle with some kind of machined gloss, and nearly every beat and tune ridiculously catchy.
Where the album disappoints is under the hood. Allen says a lot, but when you scrape away the icing she doesn't have much to say. She hates bureacrats, old people (her most ill-tempered rants go to her own grandmother, who has blasphemed against the punk code by growing old, a horror Allen seems to regard as a character fault...let's see how you feel in another 30 years, Lil), commercialism, and nearly all of her ex-boyfriends. Her main desire in life seems to be club-hopping, but she devotes several songs to gripes about obnoxious doormen, hostile-jealous girl rivals, and ugly guys that hit on her, so you have to wonder why she bothers. Everything on the album is catchy and clever, but all the effort seems a bit wasted when the content is so random and psychologically shallow. I kept waiting for a real punk-type rant, replete with guitar-smashing and burning British flags, but it never came. This is real belly-to-asphalt, working-class-on-the-dole, narrow-horizon type stuff, and my final impression was of a thoroughbred race horse hooked up to a everyday milkwagon: lots of talent spent in the wrong direction. Lilly Allen has a gorgeous voice and a skewering wit, and her next time at bat I hope she swings at more substantive stuff than sexually unsatisfying boyfriends and coupon-clipping grandmas. 3.5/5
Cynical yet cheery
2008-05-02 - As a cynical yet cheery girl myself, I really enjoyed this album. Catchy, pop tunes filled with thoughtful and/or witty lyrics really make you stop and listen. It's one of those CDs that I can play over and over again without getting sick of it.
