Serving a sobering re-reminder of not only a Noel Gallagher-featured Oasis now being a solely past-tense entity, but also of Lily Allen’s long-hinted-at threats of an early retirement finally making the crossover into reality, you can’t help but be stricken with a double dose heaping of lump-in-throat sadness when hearing Lily’s solid Live Lounge take on the former band’s gorgeous 2008 ballad “I’m Outta Time”.
Throw in the song’s already hauntingly touching, Lennon-inspired songcraft and the nostalgia element found in Liam’s lyrics (“Here’s a song/ It reminds me of when we were young…”), and it’s almost too much “ending of eras” gloom to have to digest in one sitting.
Catch Allen’s live performances of “Time” and her own latest single, the precious friendship-to-romance document “Who’d Have Known”, below.
Loyal site-watchers have probably gotten the hint that we’re big fans of basically whatever Doctor Rosen Rosen does…and who could blame us, seeing that his darkly shaded, synth-based re-imaginings are always ace.
On his latest project, the good Doc ambitiously opted on remixing the entirety of Lily Allen’s half-year-old sophomore LP It’s Not Me, It’s You, and damn if he hasn’t gotten us to fall in love with the English pop pixie’s set all over again thanks to his efforts, which basically entail replacing the original’s cutesy, upbeat soundscapes with gorgeously brooding electro-pop arrangements that help plant a clearer focus on her always entertaining penmanship game.
Maestro’s favorites include Rosen’s take on It’s Not Me’s current single “22″, which makes Allen’s washed-up-at-thirty musings feel even more depressing and hopeless when thrust under a moonlit blanket of gloomy synth-strings, and album-closer/ forgiving-Father ode “He Wasn’t There”, which marries an icy drum march with forlorn lullaby melodics.
An excellent collection that lands as a nice compliment to the original, we can’t help but anticipate what pop album Rosen is eyeing next to give the “Bizarro World” treatment to.
You can snatch up our faves below, but head here to DL the entire set for FREE.
It’s feels odd that the powers-that-be would decide on pushing Lily Allen’s politically-minded “Fuck You” as <em>It’s Not Me, It’s You’s next international single seeing as though the track seemed to carry a lot more weight when it premiered online last summer.
Back then (when it was going under the title of “Guess Who Batman”), it’s main target (ol’ President W.) was still in office, giving the song a hefty controversy buzz, and the kiddie-TV candy-pop beat that formed the cut’s musical foundation felt like an exciting sneak peak to how Allen’s then-still mysterious, ska/ reggae-bypassing sophomore album was going to sound. Twelve months later, both “Fuck You”’s edge and charm feels lost: Bush is long gone, and the production isn’t as fetching (and now, perhaps a bit too cavity-inducing) now that we’ve had to live with it for a year.
What could Allen possibly do to re-invite some attraction back to a long-tired new single pick? How about align it with a clever enough music video.
Which just so happens to be the case with “Fuck You”’s accompanying clip: a first-person, day-in-the-life-of concept given a neat twist once “Allen” starts “screwing around” with the universe that surrounds her.
Check out the vid below, then grab Doc Fritz’ “Fossa Nova Remix” of “Fuck You” (from the must-have Lily Allen Remixed free-load collection) afterwards.
**UPDATE: The always noteworthy Doctor Rosen Rosen recently crafted up his own remix to “Fuck You” and, like pretty much all his other creations, it’s a doozy! Grab it below:
On “22″, Lily pierces another cotton candy foundation of cutesy pop with the dark pangs of reality, telling the tale of a woman who, after spending her party-loving twenty-somethings living life without a care in the world, is suddenly slapped across the face with the emptiness of her existence as she edges into age 30.
Stuck with an “alright” job with no true love in sight (“All she wants is a boyfriend/ She gets one-night stands”), the woman teeters on a nervous breakdown, Lily’s mocking hook of “Sad but it’s true/ How society tells her life is already over” echoing within her increasingly distraught brain. Making things even worse, the backing track doesn’t offer any tinge of pity for her, it’s bouncy piano jig nonchalantly rolling along it’s merry way, as if to illustrate all the satisfied same-aged folk around her now nestling into the adult groove they had been working hard to achieve while she was too busy out getting shit-faced on the regular.
Encompassing all that we loved, then briefly grew tired of, then fell in love with all over again about Allen, “22″’s delicious dose of sugary melody and finely-sharpened songwriting that the every-blogger person can appreciate, perfectly re-asserts why her It’s Not Me, It’s You stands as one of early 2009’s must-have collections.
When Lily Allen announced earlier this year that her new album was leaving the summery ska loops behind for electro-pop terrain, it felt like the beginnings of the end for the near-instantaneous UK pop sensation. What would be the point of her continuing her career if she didn’t at least try to milk the classic reggae-tinged structures of “LDN” and “Smile” a bit longer? But then, over the next few months, new material began to leak, and all seemed right in the world again as the other appealing aspect to her art, that sharp lyricism, was shown to have lost none of it’s plain-sung bite (and, thankfully, felt just as perfect when lain atop the synth be-dazzled arrangements).
On “The Fear”, the first single off sophomore album It’s Not You, It’s Me, Allen plants her tongue firmly in cheek as she serves a mocking of celeb culture obsession and the lame-brained aspirations it brings. Spotlighting a yearn for a “fantastic” life filled with fast cars, bulging wardrobes, a thin body and “fuckloads of diamonds” (a line brilliantly followed with the lackadaisically uttered, “I heard people die while they are trying to find them”), “Fear” matches this “dream existence” with lighter-than-air chops and an ethereal dance-pop beat that floats somewhere above the clouds, superbly illustrating how un-grounded the shallow mindset really is.
Is it as impeccable a pop creation as “Smile”? Not necessarily, but “The Fear”’s sarcastic exploration of a sadly death-less societal ill (Stand out lyric #2: “I am a weapon of massive consumption/ And it’s not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function”) coupled with it’s clever, sweet-toothed presentation promises that a major deviation from the winning musical framing of Allen’s breakthrough won’t be the tragic career death-knell it might have initially seemed.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
Serving a sobering re-reminder of not only a Noel Gallagher-featured Oasis now being a solely past-tense entity, but also of Lily Allen’s long-hinted-at threats of an early retirement finally making the crossover into reality, you can’t help but be stricken with a double dose heaping of lump-in-throat sadness when hearing Lily’s solid Live Lounge take on the former band’s gorgeous 2008 ballad “I’m Outta Time”.
Loyal site-watchers have probably gotten the hint that 
It’s feels odd that the powers-that-be would decide on pushing Lily Allen’s politically-minded “Fuck You” as <
On “22″, Lily pierces another cotton candy foundation of cutesy pop with the dark pangs of reality, telling the tale of a woman who, after spending her party-loving twenty-somethings living life without a care in the world, is suddenly slapped across the face with the emptiness of her existence as she edges into age 30.
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