Word: allene
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Allen takes on a few subjects that are beyond her grasp--"F___ You," her rotten egg lobbed at George W. Bush, feels ridiculous and late--but even when she's being stupid, she sounds like an honest pop star. To quote a line from her ballad "Who'd Have Known," "Even though it's moving forward, there's just the right amount of awkward...
...Lily Allen became the first breakout star on MySpace, and even nonadolescents could figure out the appeal. Her debut album, Alright, Still, had an irresistible single called "Smile," a follow-up about a dope-smoking little brother, and just enough ska and reggae samples to hint at the existence of a precocious streak. There was a minor controversy over Allen's fondness for obscenities and Mockney (the British term for the upper-class affectation of a lower-class Cockney accent, ŕ la Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins), but even that advanced her charm as a real girl sticking...
...Allen's follow-up, It's Not Me, It's You, isn't nearly as cute, but grownup things rarely are. Born in London and raised there by an actor father and a film-producer mother (as a girl, Allen appeared as a lady-in-waiting in Elizabeth and was mentored by, among others, Joe Strummer), Allen, 23, appears to have embraced a slightly more serious view of what pop can be. Not that you can tell from the hooks. Produced by Greg Kurstin of the retro-pop duo the Bird and the Bee, the music robs every genre...
What's different--and better--is Allen. Her range is a tiny thing, but she dispenses with the guv'nors and blimeys and sings with a pout, as if she were caught in the middle of a mildly disappointing day--though no worse than what she expected when she got up. Her voice rarely rises above the conversational and never sounds labored; nothing she sings feels like a statement, which is why you're surprised when the lyrics add up to something smart. "The Fear," already a hit in Britain, is a hummable single about vapid consumerism ("I want...
...complexities of Abraham Lincoln’s legacy before a packed audience at the Institute of Politics last night. Faust was joined by Pulitzer prize winner Tony Kushner, Harvard English professor John Stauffer, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, Yale University professor David W. Blight, and Gettysburg University professor Allen C. Guelzo for the discussion, which focused on the realities that underlie the Lincoln myth. Harvard professor of African-American studies Henry Louis Gates Jr. served as the moderator. “Every generation of Americans since 1865 has fashioned a Lincoln to its own needs,” said Gates...