Lily Allen Claims New Music Is "Rubbish" - But Is It Really?

We’ve always known that singer Lily Allen was never afraid of saying what was on her mind, but her latest outburst, in response to a Twitter fan calling her music ‘rubbish’ might be her most shocking yet. Shocking because, well the singer agreed. When a fan took to the micro blogging site to call her latest musical offerings ‘docile pop rubbish’, Lily responded with ‘what you’ve heard so far yes. All I can do is do my best, the labels and the radio stations won’t play the better stuff.’ So is Lily and her disappointed fan right, are her new singles just ‘rubbish’?

Lily Allen decided to take a break from the music industry back in 2009, by that stage she’d released two albums, 2006’s multi platinum ‘Alright Still’ and 2009’s ‘Its' Not Me, It's You’, so her musical hiatus came as a bit of a shock to fans. During her down time Lily became a mother to two children and married husband Sam Cooper in 2011. She also used her time off from music to open a clothing store with her sister and launch her own record label. Then in 2012 Lily found herself back in the studio, recording what was to become her first album in five years, the soon to be released ‘Sheezus’.

Since coming back to the charts Lily has also found herself back in the headlines. First for the video for her comeback single, ‘Hard Out Here’. Specifically it was the video that got attention as Lily lampooned other pop stars by twerking and pretending to have liposuction. Was it feminist or was it just as expletive? The broadsheets debated, however the single itself received critical praise and entered the UK top 10. Rolling Stone called it ‘a feminist anthem through and through,’ adding ‘‘Hard Out Here’ tackles everything from tired gender roles and expectations to double standards regarding sex and appearance for men and women.’ The Guardian also seemed happy to have Allen back saying, ‘created specifically to drum up controversy, engage a debate and represent the now, ‘Hard Out Here’ is exactly what we wanted from a Lily Allen comeback'.

Of course ‘Hard out Here’ wasn't Lily’s only single release of 2013. She also covered Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ for the John Lewis Christmas campaign. The cover brought Lily back to the top of the singles chart in Britain, but few could dub it her best or most artistic work to date. Indeed the saccharine tune and advert to match didn’t find much love from the critics, with The Telegraph labelling it ‘wrong song, wrong sound, wrong singer.’

Next page: Is Lily Allen's 'Air Balloon' rubbish?

Lily’s next offering was ‘Air Balloon’ which drew comparisons with M.I.A., not all of them favourable. Some found it catchy and others found the playground rhyme style irritating. Digital Spy called it ‘playground pop that lacks heart’, whilst Rolling Stone were more favourable describing it as ‘a poppy, synth-heavy cut that shows off the singer's playful and funny sides.

The release of ‘Air Balloon’ was quickly followed up with ‘L8 CMMR’, a digital download made available on February 6th. ‘L8 CMM’ followed in the bubblegum vein of ‘Air Balloon’ and garner a similar response. Words like catchy and upbeat were thrown around whilst Spin magazine referred to it as a ‘smug’ autotuner’. What the song did benefit from was featuring on the soundtrack to HBO’s ‘Girls’, and really what better exposure to her target audience could Lily have asked for?

Lily Allen has definitely made a comeback, but whether it's the one she wanted to make were not so certain. She’s spent the past few months in the headlines due to her comments on other artists as well as saying ‘feminism shouldn’t even be a thing anymore’, oh and her advice to men ‘go out earn some money come back and look after my children’. If Lily wanted to come back into the public eye simply to make a few controversial headlines then it's worked. As for her music, she hasn't exactly managed to offer us anything overwhelmingly spectacular since returning to the studio. The thing that endeared audiences to Allen back in 2006 was the fact that she was outspoken and said whatever she wanted, but at the same time she had the songs to back it up. Now it seems her heart might just not be in it. Of course we haven't heard ‘_Sheezu_s’ yet, the rest of the album might be vastly different from the past two offerings, we’ll know in May. As for now, well if Lily wants to concede that her recent output has been ‘rubbish’, lets just say we know better than to disagree with Lily Allen.