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Allen peaks in “It’s a Shame” with the line “You’ll be crying just like a baby/A sea of tears they’ll call the Navy,” and some of the details she offers (the “al fresco” picnic in “LDN,” buying skinny jeans to look like Kate Moss in “Wonderful”) are fun enough. But these lines are half-baked — never with the discipline of an actual joke — and there’s no excusing “Take What You Take,” her bid for Alanis-like women-empowering US radio play. Not only does she philosophize (“Just because you think you’re old you think you’re wise”), she advises, too: “Feel what you feel as long as it’s real.” Well, okay. Maybe she’s busting on the conventional wisdom, flipping the platitudes for something new — but I doubt it.

No charm, little grace, what’s left of Alright, Still by the end are rich young Allen’s swipes at her poor, old, and obvious targets, horrific classism, the worst kind of celebrity self-obsession. Right up to the very last song, a silly Tin Pan polka called “Alfie,” she picks and carps and know-it-alls, this time to her younger, weed-loving brother. “All you do is stay and play on your computer games,” she tells him alright. With a big sister like Lily, can you blame him?

On the Web
Lily Allen: http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/

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