It's Not Me, It's You

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It's Not Me, It's You
Studio album by Lily Allen
Released	9 February 2009 (see release history)
Recorded	2008 - 2009
Genre	Pop, electropop, alternative
Length	43:12
Label	Regal
Producer	Greg Kurstin
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Drowned in Sound (6/10) link The Guardian link NME (8/10) link Pitchfork (6.6/10) link Robert Christgau (A) link Rolling Stone link Spin link Slant Magazine link Uncut link
Lily Allen chronology
Alright, Still (2006) It's Not Me, It's You (2009) F.U.E.P. (2009)
Singles from It's Not Me, It's You
"The Fear" Released: December 9, 2008 "Not Fair" Released: March 17, 2009 "Fuck You" Released: May 19, 2009 "22[1]" Released: August 18, 2009

It's Not Me, It's You is the second studio album by British pop singer-songwriter Lily Allen. It was released in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2009 and on February 10 in North America.

[edit] Background

In April 2008, Allen announced that she was moving in a "new direction" on her upcoming record.^[2] A year later, she described the album's sound in the April 2009 issue of Teen Vogue, saying it was "quite fun" and had "loads of different types of music—country, jazz, and electronic." She continued on to say, "I wanted to do something danceable, to make the gigs more interesting for me and the people watching."^[3]

Allen recorded most of the album at Eagle Rock Studios in Los Angeles with producer Greg Kurstin of the band The Bird and the Bee.^[4] Of the songwriting process, she said "Greg builds the chords up and I just sing along and make up the words and then once you've got the bare song, we decide which way we're gonna go with the production."^[5]

[edit] MySpace demos

Prior to the album's release, Allen posted a number of demos on her MySpace page.^[6] The first two to appear were "I Could Say" and "I Don't Know" on 20 March 2008, the latter of which was retitled and released as the album's lead single, "The Fear". Based on the first two demos, Digital Spy described her new artistic direction as more mature, more reflective and more electronic.^[7]

A third, politically charged clip was later posted, with the titles "Guess Who Batman" and later "Get With the Brogram", finally appearing as "GWB". Despite both working titles sharing initials with George W. Bush, Allen wrote that "this song is not a direct attack at anyone, it was originally written about the BNP in the UK but then I felt this issue has become relevant pretty much everywhere, we are the youth, we can make coolness for our future, its up to us. Go green and hate hate".^[8] The song was retitled "Fuck You" for the album version.

Allen posted a fourth song on her MySpace page, called "Who'd of Known", noting that the song had been recorded for the album but would not be included due to legal issues since the chorus is musically similar to the Take That song "Shine".^[9] However, Take That later did allow Allen to include the song on the album (now titled grammatically correctly as "Who'd Have Known").^[9]

On 2 February, Lily posted all 12 tracks from her album to listen to on her MySpace profile page.

[edit] Release

In May 2008, Allen told The Sunday Mirror that the album was nearly finished. Allen said of the album "I've worked so hard. My next album is nearly finished. I'm on a two-week break and then I'm starting a massive promotional tour."^[10]

In August 2008, Allen blamed the delay in the album's release on her record company EMI/Parlophone.^[11] On September 15, it was announced via her MySpace blog that the album will be released on February 9, 2009.^[12]

In July 2008, the working title of the album was confirmed as Stuck on the Naughty Step.^[5] On October 7 at the BMI Awards, Allen announced that the album title had been changed to It's Not Me, It's You, due to the fact that she "lived with [the original title] for too long" and got bored of the original title.

On 29 October Allen announced the album will be released in the United States release date on February 10, 2009. The track listings were also released. She described the sound as bigger and a more ethereal sound. She noted she has grown as a person and feels the album will have some sort of integrity.^[4]

On 19 December, a 12 track promotional samplers were sent out to various blogs and online stores, to review ahead of the album's release.

On 20 December, British newspaper The Sun gave away a free 7 track album mini-mix, as part of the ongoing promotion schedule by EMI. The mini-mix included "Everyone's At It" and "The Fear", as well as 4 previously unheard studio versions of "Not Fair", "22", "Never Gonna Happen" and "Fuck You".

On 23 December, music magazine NME have confirmed that the exclusive first play of the album will be available days before its physical release on their website.

The album was released digitally in the UK on 8 February, the eve of its physical release.

In its first week of release in the UK, It's Not Me, It's You sold 112,568 albums making it go to Number 1 instantly.

[edit] Promotion

Allen promoted the album all around the world. She appeared on "GMTV" in the UK where she performed "The Fear". She again performed this song on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross", "The Sunday Night Project".

She performed "The Fear" and "Fuck You" in France on "Le Grand Journal de Canal+" and sang "The Fear" on "NRJ Radio".

Allen went to America to promote the album. She appeared on many talk shows such as: "The Today Show", "The View", "Late Show with David Letterman", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show". She also performed "The Fear" and "Not Fair at "Sessions@AOL".

She also went to Australia to promote the album where she appeared on talkshow "Rove Live" where she performed "The Fear", "Not Fair" and "22". She sang songs from the album on "Triple J" radio station such as: "The Fear", "Not Fair" and He Wasn't There. She also performed "The Fear" on "So You Think You Can Dance Australia".

She also performed "The Fear" on Japanese Show "Music Station".

She performed "Not Fair" on UK TV show "T4"

She was interviewed about the album on UK TV show "The One Show".

Allen performed songs off the album and old hits on "Radio 1's Big Weekend" and at "G-A-Y".

She has furthur promoted the album with her tour and festivals around the world. Allen Recently stated in a few interviews the next US single will be Go Back To The Start.

[edit] Critical response

It's Not Me, It's You has been given a positive response from critics. Reviewing for The Observer, Garry Mulholland awarded the album five out of five, calling this a "wonderful record," and added that it is "a pop album brave enough to have a go at defining the times."^[13] Clash concluded: "Britain’s mouthy pop idol returns triumphantly and with the brawny guts to stick with what she knows best", after commenting that Allen "probably has enough personal ammunition to fuel a ten-year career of brutally autobiographical albums".^[14] Mikael Wood of Billboard stated the album is "hardly the grown-up buzz-kill it might have been", according with him, it was thanks to "Allen's still-sharp lyrical wit and an exceedingly crafty production job by Greg Kurstin." Wood also praised in particular the track "Him", calling it as an "irresistible tune".^[15]

The album was favourably reviewed by The Daily Telegraph. Reviewer Neil McCormick praised her more personal songs on the album; "It is when she turns her sharp tongue to her own affairs of the heart that Allen's growing adventurousness and lyrical confidence really pay off....But in particular Who'd Have Known is a tender evocation of friendship turning to love, in which the detail is telling and Allen's vocal performance positively glows with easy affection. On such songs, Allen still sounds like a real person telling us the most intimate details of her real life, only with better hooks." McCormick also praised the lead single, as "superb" and "an ironic declaration of celebrity superficiality set to a pulsing, sleekly modern electro dance backing."^[16]

[edit] Tour

In 2009, Allen's performed 81 international shows in support of It's Not Me, It's You.

[edit] Singles

• "The Fear": Allen stated on her official website that The Fear was the chosen song for the lead single. The song had its radio premiere via on The Scott Mills Show on 1 December 2008. The song's official music video had its premiere on 4 December at Channel 4, but it was leaked before the official release date, it was uploaded on YouTube 2 hours before the official premiere.^[17] It had 200 views before the premiere. Although Parlophone's official YouTube account uploaded it on 3 December. It was released on European iTunes on 4 December and at the United States iTunes, the song later became Lily's second number 1 in the UK, climbing a massive 167 places to the top spot.

• "Not Fair": "Not Fair" was released on 20 March via digital download, and will be released on 16 May as a CD single. "Not Fair" was played by DJ Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 days before the release of the album, and was heavily edited to 02:04, removing the line "Oh I lie here in the wet patch in the middle of the bed, I'm feeling pretty damn hard done by, I've spent ages giving head".

• "Fuck You": "Fuck You" was released as the albums third single on May 19, 2009. "Fuck You" was released on the Australian iTunes store on April 22, available as a censored version different to that which appeared on the "The Fear" EP, and the normal album version. The track peaked at number 9 on the Czech Airplay Chart^[18] and 198 in the European Charts^{[citation needed]}, under the demo name "Guess Who Batman".^[18] The song also has received much airplay on Australian radio stations, Nova and Triple J, and charted at #90 on the 2008 Triple J Hottest 100. This resulted in it charting at #27 on the ARIA top 40 digital charts for the week beginning 16th Feb 2009.^[19] In the Netherlands the song in fact was released as the second single, and peaked at 1 at the Singles Chart.

• "22": "22" was released as the albums fourth official single on July 14, 2009. On the May 31, Lily stated that "22" would be her next single from her Twitter page after revealing that the music video would be shot the next day: "On my way home, video shoot for 22 tomorrow, very exciting x" The video was released on July 11, 2009.

[edit] Other songs

• "Womanizer": On December 13, 2008 Allen revealed a cover of Britney Spears' hit single, "Womanizer". When asked Allen stated Spears was a "goddess" and that her new album is "amazing". Lily said about the cover song "We did it for fun with the guys (producers) in the studio, it was really great and fun."^[20] It can be heard on Parlophone's official YouTube channel. Although this song is not on the album It's Not Me, It's You, it is on the iTunes exclusive F.U.E.P..

[edit] Track listing

All songs written and composed by Lily Allen and Greg Kurstin, except where noted. 

[edit] Bonus tracks

[edit] US, Brazil & UK Enhanced CD

The Enhanced CD includes a link to a webpage, which can only be accessed with the disc in your CD-ROM drive, featuring:

• MP3 download of "22 (Acoustic Version)" [3:07]
• Track stems from every song on the album that can be used to make remixes, which can be uploaded to Lily Allen's website
• "The Fear" video
• 'Making of "The Fear" Video'
• Video of Lily Allen commenting on the album's tracks
• Flash game titled "Escape the Fear".

[edit] Release history

[edit] Charts

The album has so far reached #1 in 3 countries, the top 20 in 18 countries and has sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide within 5 months making it her most successful album so far.

[edit] References