release date: May 5, 2014
format: digital (14 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: various
label: Parlophone - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 2. "L8 CMMR" - 4. "Our Time" - 7. "As Long as I Got You" - 8. "Close Your Eyes" - 12. "Hard Out Here" (4 / 5) (live)
3rd studio album by Lily Allen following more than 5 years after It's Not Me, It's You (Feb. 2009) again features producer and songwriter Greg Kurstin, but here in a smaller part compared to the 2009-album.
Thematically, Allen stays much to the same formula of singing about relationships - explicit details of what you really wouldn't like to experience in that particular arena of your life, and she has found her own funny way of exposing everything from sex and the downside of her private partner to artistic competition as part of the music business. Yes, Allen has been outspoken about the use of first person's fictional stories as completely and 100% made-up narratives. Still, it's striking how the stories on her albums share similarities with that of her own life. Regardless that, she onfolds witty stories that make it all that more interesting but on Sheezus - the title being an obvious wordplay of 'She' and 'Jesus' (i.e. a she-version of Jesus) - the musical aspect doesn't deliver on a scale we have become accustomed to when refering to Lily Allen. Stylewise, it's a mixed bag of britpop and electropop with the latter style being reduced somewhat her, when comparing to the predecessor. Tracks like "L8 CMMR" and "Air Balloon" does sound like paler imitations of songs and the style presented by M.I.A. but what's most crutially missing here are obvious hits.
The promotion single "Hard Out Here" is a mighty fine pick to introduce an upcoming album but when it stands that much alone on the actual full-length release it's not hard to understand the lukewarm reviews this album garnered. The following four singles are simply not on the same level and wit, irony, and a bunch of funny lyrics are not really enough to save this from being Allen's least favourable album to date. In the long run, Sheezus is an album that drowns in indecisiveness and immitations, and / or: generic pop sounding too much like Perry, M.I.A., Kate Nash, you name it, instead of carrying an original tone of its own.
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Spin 2,5 / 5, 👍Pitchfork 5,4 / 10, The Guardian, Rolling Stone 3 / 5, Slant 3,5 / 5, NME 1,5 / 5 stars ]
