On her day, Lily Allen can stand toe to toe with Damon Albarn when it comes to disseminating people, places and things. Think London Town and Parklife.

Lily Allen’s third album ‘Sheezus’ has taken a lot of flak, including from Lily herself, who tweeted that her label wouldn’t support her better stuff. NME awarded it a measly 3 out of 10. The criticism is harsh. Here is an album very much entrenched in the pop genre, but it also covers  influences from London’s cultural melting pot, adding variety.

Title track and one of the highlights, Sheezus showcases her typically acerbic lyrics- “It makes me angry, I’m serious/ But then again I’m just about to get my period”. Hooky breakbeats and heavy production values make it a satisfying start to the album.

Second track L8MMR starts with a House Of Pain sample and Air Balloon borrows from MIA ‘s Paper Planes, thus setting the direction for an album that unashamedly copies from a host of artists and genres, including Jamaican Dance Hall, R&B from the ’80s, ’90s and early noughties, hip hop, Britpop and dubstep.

Whilst there is nothing original, at least the tracks don’t  sound the same. Our Time is an example of what Lily does best. Like Albarn, she does boys and girls misbehaving badly very well. This middle class girl knows how to connect with the reality of the working classes. “Bring some fags and bring some Rizlas.” Forget the alcohol -Liam, cigarettes and skins are all we need.

Insincerely Yours could almost be a cover of Warren G and Nate Dogg’s Regulate harking back to the early nineties, a time when hip hop was emerging  from its subversive roots into the heart of what  modern mainstream pop now revolves around. Here is an era worthy of tribute. As Long As I’ve Got You is a strange fusion of Jamaican dancehall beats and country & western. Think Spearhead meets Rednex. Against all odds it works; the perfect track for blasting around the living room with a vacuum cleaner. Maybe this is the type of mundane that is important to Lily these days.

Parents will find a lot of identification in Life For Me; adoring your kids yet harking back to the time of freedom and sexiness that nappies and tantrums bring to an end. Perhaps  NME’s writers are a childless bunch? Hard Out There follows a similar theme, as a bitter lapsed feminist asks “Don’t you want to have someone who objectifies you.” 

URL Badman is a highlight. The dubstep chorus captures the zeitgeist of the blogger generation. As someone who made her name on the now Jurassic MySpace, Lily is in a better position than most to write a critique of a social media warrior. Maybe the dreamer on the computer is her brother Alfi.

The album finishes with a weird one minute Pink Floyd-esque interlude which serves no purpose at all, and an able version of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know. Although there is nothing groundbreaking on Lily’s third offering, did her previous albums really push the envelope? All she ever did was follow in Mike Skinner not-truly-able-to-rap slipstream. Lily Allen’s charm is not as the most musically gifted, but through her intellect and insight, her musical simplicity highlights the wit of the button-nosed beauty’s poetry. If you want a bit of light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, postmodern Britpop, ‘Sheezus’ will entertain you.