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Lily Allen · S1 E7
The Demos
A girl with a guitar and a voice that cut through everything
London Records, 2002. Seventeen-year-old Lily Allen sits in a recording studio singing folk songs she did not write, because her father Keith got her this deal and the songs are his.
Knock 'Em Out by Lily Allen (Live at Glastonbury 2007). One of the earliest Future Cut demos, performed at the festival she first attended at six weeks old. A sharp, funny takedown of unwanted male attention. This is the voice that nobody at London Records wanted to hear.
Future Cut
George Lamb introduces Lily to production duo Future Cut: Darren Lewis and Tunde Babalola. They begin recording at The Fish Market studio in Dollis Hill. Lily sings melodies with no words, Future Cut arranges them into songs, lyrics come later. They complete a quarter of the album in a single week.
Sources
Allen, Lily. "My Thoughts Exactly." Blink Publishing, 2018, Ch. 8.
Allen, Lily. Interview with Stereogum, November 2018.
“I signed a deal that was an artist deal. So 25,000 pounds for five albums, and then I was a pop star.”
— Lily Allen
Knock 'Em Out, Lily Allen (2006)
Built on a music hall piano riff straight out of a Victorian pub singalong, the track is a guide to dodging unwanted chat-up lines. Lily's vocal delivery shifts between exasperated storytelling and gleeful comedy as she invents increasingly ridiculous excuses to escape. The brass section lifts the chorus into terrace-chant territory. Live, the "na na na na na" becomes a crowd singalong that turns the whole thing into pure communal joy.
TAP TO REVEAL: How much Regal Recordings paid for Lily Allen
Not Big by Lily Allen
From Alright, Still (2006). Pure venom wrapped in a nursery-rhyme melody. Lily tells an ex he was terrible in bed with the sweetest voice imaginable. This is the songwriting style Future Cut helped her discover: say the most devastating thing possible, then set it to music your grandmother could hum.
Not Big, Lily Allen (2006)
Follow the lyrics while you listen. Pure venom in a nursery-rhyme melody. The songwriting style Future Cut helped her discover: say the most devastating thing possible, then hum it.
The Demos by the Numbers
What was the first song Lily Allen ever wrote?
Twenty-five thousand pounds for five albums from a label that sees her as an afterthought. Then, in November 2005, Lily uploads her music to a website called MySpace and everything changes overnight.
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