LILY ALLEN - The Fear Review

British tabloid starlet Lily Allen—who flirted with stateside success with her 2006 top 40 hit "Smile"—has a polarizing allure for her offstage behavior and the curious lyrics she so shamelessly fires off. Previous collaborating producer Greg Kurstin delivers the same magic he created as half of the duo the Bird and the Bee on "The Fear," co-written with Allen, which introduces her highly anticipated, much-delayed sophomore album, "It's Not Me, It's You" (Feb. 10). The singer packs another lyrical punch as she touches upon the charade of fame, delusions of consumerism and media obsession with her celebrity. Her delightful vocals bounce through the deliciously colorful video in a fantasy-meets-reality scenario. Shot at a fancy English estate, the Alice in Wonderland-esque Allen appears like a dramatic actor lost and tempted by co-stars who have arrived on the wrong set for a musical. With her single—a certified smash throughout much of Europe and America's recent embrace of talent from across the Atlantic—Allen's got nothing to fear this time around. —Michael Menachem...full text Good to have you back Lily - missed ya!

If anybody else out there was keeping score between Lily and Amy Winehouse, Lily is the winner in finally getting some new music out. The Fear is Lily’s first single from the new album, It’s Not Me, It’s You.

They say the second album is always a difficult prospect. You’ve got to keep the fans you gained with the first record, but you’ve got to offer something new at the same time....full text For all the tabloid column inches and paparazzi pictures, it would be wrong to mistake Lily Allen for a product of the celebrity culture which so readily adopted her. She's much smarter than that, a point that comeback single, "The Fear" ably makes while neatly disembowelling the very notion of celebrity and all the meaningless trappings and skewed values that go with it. That she does it without sounding ungrateful or like a moaning pop star, only goes to prove just how smart she really is....full text