Jenny on Lily

Lily Allen is an artist that I wanted to not like from the start. I disliked her image, and disliked the shallow nature of her songs. I also really disliked the way she seemed to refuse to correctly pronounce the letter ‘t’ in words.

It has to be said that her early stuff really did bolster my thoughts to this effect. Shallow, materialistic and – dare I say it – chavvy. It embodied everything I thought had gone wrong with young people in Britain (gosh, I sound like an old fart saying that).

However, there came a single called “the fear” that I discovered on the radio and actually really liked. As is the way with these things, I checked first to make sure that this single wasn’t just a cover of a better artist’s song. But is wasn’t. So I bought a 7″ picture disk copy of it, and have to say that I still liked it. What was more, I heard first another then yet another good Lily Allen song off the same album it seems. So today, I have finally bitten the bullet and ordered on vinyl LP a copy of the “It’s not me, it’s you” album.

It only goes to show that whilst first impressions might be powerful, they aren’t always the ones that persist. I’m also quite open to giving groups and artists a second chance. Marilyn Manson is just such an artist, who I detested until “Mechanical Animals” appeared. It goes to show that music is an ever-changing medium that certainly does throw up a few surprises.

I await the LP with interest, and only hope that some day Lily Allen discovers that mispronouncing the letter ‘t’ does not make you sound cool, but rather, a prat.