Day Six - A song that reminds of you of somewhere.
When I was in high school, I worked at a corporate CD store, where we were only allowed to play music provided to us by record companies (ie. promotional "play copies" given to us for free). This limited the sorts of music we could play and my choices were often relegated to Radiohead (about which MANY older customers complained about it being "noise") and Travis.
In my last semester of college and a year after I graduated, I worked at a much cooler, independently owned CD shop. We could play whatever music we wanted, so the possibilities were endless!
I discovered Lily Allen's debut album, Alright, Still during the time I was working at said CD shop. I really loved blasting it in the store because it was fun, pop-y and a hoot to sing along to.
The only downside was the uh, copious amounts of cursing and somewhat risqué lyrical content on the album. There'd be many incidents where families with young children would enter the shop and start browsing, and I'd feel the obligation to run and turn down the music, lest they hear lyrics about ex-boyfriends' small penises and girls on guest lists dressed like c***s. The last thing I wanted was parents complaining to the shop owners about "inappropriate music" being played in the shop (because we definitely did have those types of dickhead customers... sigh).
It still makes me chuckle, remembering how kids and their parents would be dancing around to "Smile" and "LDN," completely oblivious to the lyrical content. Listening to this album definitely reminds me of my CD shopgirl days.
"Knock 'Em Out" has always been one of my favourites because it's just so damned funny. My coworkers and I sometimes liked to practice our English accents to this song: "I've gotta go my house is on fire. I've got herpes! No, I've got syphilis!" Hahaha...
Haha, I love that album! The first song I heard was 'Knock Em Out', on a cd free with NME or something and I just went and bought the album without hearing any other songs. It reminds me of my debs(prom), as I spent the sunny days out lying on the trampoline, listening to the album on my iPod, catching a tan!
ReplyDeletei like this album more than her second - something about her debut seemed something like a happy accident, like it was totally effortless. plus mark ronson as a producer, has got the midas touch! on her second album, she'd become a real celebrity and it seemed less about a 'regular' london girl's point of view and more of a celeb on a soapbox rant sometimes. regardless though, i am still a big lily fan!
ReplyDeleteKnock 'em Out is the song that got me into Lily Allen!
ReplyDeletei actually don't remember the first lily allen song i heard! i just remember hearing she was the "next big thing" and ordered in her CD at the store so that i could check it out.
ReplyDeleteI never bought the second album, I wasn't inspired to buy it for some reason. Though I do like The Fear. I think my favourite from this album is Everything's Just Wonderful, it's that regular girl's voice in the song
ReplyDeleteeverything's just wonderful has the cleverest lyrics! "all the magazines they talk about weight loss, if i buy those jeans, i can look like kate moss!" =P that one and knock 'em out are probably my faves on the album. but overall it's all great - reminds me also of being in london!
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