These are the first 15 songs, however embarrassing (many in my case!), that play when I put my iTunes on shuffle. I love reading other peoples version of this because it shows their guilty pleasures and old obsessions (Hannah Montana, oh dear), plus it widens my own musical horizon. Feel free to use the links and have a listen for yourself/reminisce...
9. Gym Class Heroes - Cookie Jar Listen
10. Morrissey - Speedway Listen
11. The Pretty Reckless - Follow Me Down Listen
12. Jay Z and Kanye West - In Paris (pretty sure this one is my sisters...) Listen
13. McFly - Transylvania Listen
14. Green Day - Viva La Gloria (Little Girl) Listen
15. Lana Del Ray - Carmen Listen
I like this album a lot, but it's been troubling me. Honestly, I haven't always been a massive fan of Lily Allen, probably just from a lack of actually listening to her music, but I bought her 2009 It's Not Me, It's You album a few months ago when I saw it for £3 in Morrisons, and genuinely thought it was great. I received Sheezus for my birthday a few weeks ago because I liked her recent singles. However, before I had the chance to listen to it, I saw Lily on 'Alan Carr's Chatty Man'promoting the album, and she said that it's just a 'dumb pop song' with no political meaning. This confused me. I hate it when singer/songwriters do this, saying something typical like they 'Don't take themselves/their work too seriously'. I feel like it completely undermined the album before I could even make up my own mind about it.
See, I listen to music for primarily two reasons (do others do this too?):
1) Escapism
2) Can relate to it/it "speaks to me" (cheesy)/empathy/connection
I class Lily as a mixture of both, but some of her songs like 'Hard out Here' where she addresses sexism in the music industry, 'The Fear', and 'Everyone's At It', relate to contemporary societal issues, and therefore I see her as a Voice of Honesty amongst many songs in the charts that are infused with pretty much the same old predictable message. This is why I like her music. So, when she says something like that, I feel like the songs, like HOH which has such great potential for empowerment, mean nothing. I don't know about you, but I can't deal with this sort of contradiction. Unless it's something I do completely for 'escapism', then I struggle to (mentally) invest in something that apparently has no substance. Especially as a literature student who (often unconsciously and in spite of efforts not to!) analyses EVERYTHING as if it has some sort of polilitcal or ulterior motive.
Needless to say, after just a few times listening to Sheezus, so many songs are undeniably catchy.
I especially like (click to listen):
