TONY CLAYTON-LEAreviews Lily Allen at Academy, Dublin
Having started out a few years ago as the rent-a-mouth twentysomething it was fashionable to dislike, Lily Allen has recently undergone a transformation. She still retains elements of the things that make people sneer (her youth, for one, which is not her fault; her dress sense, for two, for which she is totally to blame), but she has put into place something else entirely that should ultimately make her one of the best pop stars of her generation: the ability to capture precise moments of love, loss, joy, sorrow, doubt and faith, and to shoehorn these moments – or at least aspects of them – into a pop song.
Allen’s gig at this small venue might not have been the crowning glory her fans were expecting, however; flanked by anonymous bloke-musicians who did exactly what they were paid to do, Allen was the focal point throughout, yet displayed little grasp of authoritative stage techniques. The show itself was a little bit amateur hour, too: ultra functional lights shone on Allen, who couldn’t make up her mind whether to dazzle the audience with her witty songs or flash them with her knickers (although she did the latter towards the end of the gig to much cheering).
When Allen wasn’t fluctuating between smart lady and brazen brat, however, she was quite brilliant. There’s a lot of nonsense being trotted out these decades about the shallowness of pop music and the superior significance of rock; personally, I’d take Allen’s acutely observed snapshots of ordinary lives over U2’s panoramic vistas, Radiohead’s impressionistic portraits or PJ Harvey’s psychotic games of cat-and-mouse any day of the week.
Wonderful pop songs such as The Fear, Not Fair, I Could Say, Who'd Have Knownand Chinese(all from Album of the Year contender It's Not Me, It's You) might have been rendered in a manner that defines the word 'loose', but Allen's gift as a songwriter made up for what she lacks as a singer/performer. Give her a few more years, one more album and a Colour Me Beautiful makeover, and she'll easily match the two.