So, Lily Allen then...

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comelately

Wild Horses
The execution is bad, we can agree with that.

But the idea is hardly novel or new and.....well, there's nothing wrong with biting the hand that feeds you - but she's not really biting down hard is she?
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
its catchy in a way she hasnt been for a while but i dont really get what shes trying to do/say exactly. the sending up of rap video cliches seems a bit dated too.

i know the over-use of the b-word makes it seem all attitude-y (for easily led guardian types at least) but it just muddles the whole premise of the song. this is basically just fence-sitting. you cant moan about sexism then have a song called its hard out here for a bitch - its like its satirising anti-sexism.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I hate Lily Allen's kinda story-telling style. Seems so forced and un-pop. Song is shit in other words - and the message is at (very) best muddled.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
call me cynical but this whole video "controversy" seems rather pre-planned and contrived, doesn't it? i can imagine her management and record company people sitting in a conference room discussing how she's been out of the picture for a while and needs an angle, and this is what they came up with. all seems very M.I.A.-ish to me.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
That is a good, very clear article, but to be honest it's shocking that it even needs to be said.
Her stupidity and/or disingenousness is epic: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/14/lilly-allen-denies-hard-out-here-video-racist (also the Guardian hardly covers itself in glory)

As depressing is Allen's inability (in the lyrics) to decide who is to blame for misogyny - is it just men, or is it actually other women flaunting their sexuality (in the bizarre couplet - "I won't be bragging 'bout my cars or talking 'bout my chains/ Don't need to shake my ass for you 'cause I've got a brain")?!!
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
its just a bad ali g video from a decade back. for it to take the piss out of modern pop sexism, it would need a lot of updating. what about gaga and miley who arent some random video chick but the main stars 'degrading' themselves because they want to? (obv its more complex than that but im just saying). its far too easy to do the 'fuck sexist rap stars' thing in 2013. the other problem with the video is that its also kinda jeering at the girls who do it. the song isnt bad though, though i should prob hear it without the video.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Quietus has the best opinion on it, at least it's the only one that even starts to talk about it in terms of film theory and male gaze :

http://thequietus.com/articles/13871...re-miley-cyrus"
Click to expand...
Yeah, read that this morning and hard to argue with most of it.
Been reading a lot of stuff about Robin Thicke over the last few months too... thing is, that Robin Thicke tune is catchy as hell, but the Lily Allen would be nowhere without controversy and column inches. I can't even remember how it went.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'd put it the other way round on tunes tbh. I actually quite liked the Lily Allen tune, depressingly, but the Robin Thicke is some kind of 80s reggae/calypso-lite atrocity.

Still think 'Royals' is the best song-I've-only-heard-in-shops-and-in-pubs of 2013.
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
the thicke video, while not exactly un-sexist, doesnt deserve all thats been thrown at it over the last year. is there going to be a ban on every song with the line 'you know you want it' from now on?
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I think the thing with the Thicke one is that the video is so blatant and then people got on the "I know you want it line" and it was a double-whammy. He looks like such a wanker as well, it's easy to hate it. At the whatever it was awards with Miley Cyrus he waddled out looking like a weird dumpy little prick. I guess that when someone ugly reinvents himself as a great lover it can be ok if you're rooting for them but if you're not it really pisses people off.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Is it a rip-off of Got To Give It Up? I didn't think so at first but the more I listen the more the similarities jump out. I guess first impressions should count in this kind of thing though.
Pharell looks so sleazy with that hayseed thing in his mouth definitely the moment that made me go uurgh the most.
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
but the Robin Thicke is some kind of 80s reggae/calypso-lite atrocity.
Click to expand...

It's a pretty clear of rip of Got to Give it Up, no?

edit: Sorry, a point already made, I see. Yeah, I think it is, Rich, more in the rhythm than the melody line. Thicke and Pharrell have launched a pre-emptive legal suit to stop Marv's family suing. Fuck knows how that works.
 
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