The Cold Cut

Lily Allen- Who'd Of Known (Link 2) (Link 3)

'Smile' was the song that alerted us all to Lily Allen's presence. At first a sickly sweet relationship tale, it morphed over a summer of domination into the song that we all loved to hate, as most radio friendly single's do. Next came 'LDN', which also metamorphosed, but not to such an extent. And finally: 'Alright, Still' a great debut album, full of wit, energy and originality. It is, however, an impressive debut album which is about to be eclipsed by her follow up, allegedly titled 'Stuck On The Naughty Step'.

We cannot underestimate the quality of the four demos that Lily has uploaded onto her Myspace. We had the emotional double whammy of 'I Could Say' and 'I Don't Know', followed by 'Guess Who Batman', an attack on politics. Lily has taken this album into her own hands, recording the demos with Garage band, on her own.

In this, the latest, wrongly titled 'Who'd Of Known' (grammar's not her strong point?), we have a simple song with a nice back-story:

"I have put up a song that wont make it on the album. I ripped off the chorus from take that and I can't be bothered with the paperwork, so here ya go."

Visit Lily's Myspace for updates on her album progress.

Lily Allen- I Could Say (Link 2) (Link 3)
Lily Allen- I Don't Know (Link 2) (Link 3)

I once made the mistake of proclaiming Kate Nash as Lily Allen's protege, and immediate superior. I was quickly cut down by my brother ("she's good, but she's got a long way to go before she's as good as Lily"). He was right- whilst Kate Nash is alright, Lily has the makings of something great.

The way she came to fame was interesting, and it was exactly the right path to take: distancing herself from her father. Obviously, Lily has had a hard time recently (I'm not going to explain the circumstances... you do the work), and that comes across in her new demos. Its as if 'Smile' never happened. And yet, these tracks were released in much the same way- by Lily herself- and will no doubt find popularity as the plays rack up (95000 on the first day, in case you were wondering!).

As the press commonly do, they obsessed over her appearance- in particular, the blonde hair. Why? The signs are all there in her music: The summer pop has been discarded for a much darker tone. And whilst 'I Could Say' and 'I Don't Know' sound like pop songs, the subject matter is less than peachy:

"And I'll take my clothes off, and it will be shameless. 'Cause everyone knows; that's how you get famous".

Update: The links have been re-posted- they should be up for another 2 weeks or so...

"The next Lily Allen"- those are the words that have been following newcomer Kate Nash around since her single Foundations smashed its way onto the charts, swallowing up the rule book and all the while proving that you don't have to have Umbrella beats to make it big. Well, why don't you take a longer look before forcing her to live in Lily's shadow? Where are the parallels in the music? Sure, she's also from London and is equally witty... but if you actually listen to her songs and compare them to Lily's you can see the similarities end there. Foundations oozes charm and wit, but not of the caustic kind (see Allen's 'Smile') and is clearly orchestrated by Nash herself: she's got the whole singer-songwriter thing going on and is competent at both piano and guitar, which are the main components of her songs, something which is mostly missing in Lily Allen's debut Alright, Still. Her real talent, though, lies in making songs accessible to ordinary people; Foundations tells the story of a couple who both hate the little things about each other:

1. Boy hates girls stories- embarresses her in front of her friends
   
2. Girl belittles boy's intelligence
3. Boy calls girl 'bitch', but girl doesn't care
4. Boy says girl's diet must be composed of lemons, because she is so bitter
5. Girl says she prefers to hang out with his male friends because they are much fitter
6. Boy gets wasted, throws up on girl's new trainers.
   
7. Etc...
   

Indeed, taking a look at that I think the major comparison at this point would be to Regina Spektor, someone who on her songs so far Nash has magically managed to clip in the summery-poppy stakes and simplicity.

It's really weird to see someone given such a reference point so early on in their career, and its obviously something that Nash struggles with (it would piss me off to no end in interviews). She's brought the release of her first album forward by a couple of months to the 6th August, probably to distance herself from this requisite line (THE NEXT LILY ALLEN) which you will find in every one of her interviews since 'Foundations' came out. The song itself is an argument between (presumably) Kate and her ex?/boyfriend which has been dressed up into a great summer pop-song- only a sign of things to come. She's no one-trick pony, however: take a look at her first single Caroline's A Victim, a track that lies at the other end of the spectrum to the conversational pop that is Foundations. An intriguing mess of synths and Nash's spoken word, it was a gutsy move to release this as your debut single, and Kate has received huge amounts of flak for it. This was all forgotten once Foundations was released, but I have a weird feeling that her self-titled album will be split down the middle; one half full of Foundation-like pop songs and the other dancehall songs similar to Caroline Is A Victim.

Her debut is currently one of my most anticipated for 2007, not least for being produced by Paul Epworth- whose credits include Bloc Party, The Rakes and Maximo Park to name a few. The slightly weird thing about all her songs is that they sound like demos, something which you wouldn't expect when she's being produced by Epworth: however, this doesn't really detract from her sound. Whatever their plan is, the release of Caroline's A Victim was an interesting move to make, but I haven't heard to enough to judge how her album will pan out. To me, her best songs are the most basic ones like Foundations and The Nicest Thing where her sound is stripped down to the her voice and a piano/guitar backing. But take a look for yourself at the songs below, and I'm sure you will agree with me: Forget the constant Lily Allen comparisons: Kate Nash is set to be a star in her own right.

Kate Nash- Caroline's A Victim
Kate Nash- Foundations
Kate Nash- Birds
Kate Nash- Navy Taxi

I hope that many members of the blogosphere tuned in for the Concert For Diana last night, which was excellent, both in terms of its message and the huge amount of bands who turned out in a tribute to the Princess Of Wales. It's also really important to recognize the huge amount of effort put in by Princes Harry and William, who managed to sort out a diverse program which included music (of all sorts: rap, rock and hip-hop), ballet, comedy and drama. Its great that they have managed to pull it off successfully, and the whole night was spectacular, from the huge stage and venue to the great performances by all the acts involved.

The acts performing included Nelly Furtado, P. Diddy, Joss Stone, The Feeling and Rod Stewart: the stand-outs for me were Elton John (of course!), James Morrison (very impressive live), Lily Allen (she actually can sing!) and Kanye West. Kanye's seven minute set was like nothing I have ever seen; he blitzed through all of his best songs, paying tribute to Diana but not making it too cheesy. He also performed his great new single, Stronger, which only gets better when performed live. Wearing a tweed suit and some very weird sunglasses, West ran about the stage, breaking a sweat and putting 110% into his performance.

All in all, the Concert For Diana was highly worthwhile: Diana was and still is one of the most important popular icons of the last century, and its great that she can be remembered through performances by some of her favorite bands, such as Duran Duran.