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Lily Allen · S2 E3
The Blog
Writing online, unfiltered, and the press couldn't look away
Alexandra Palace, June 2006. Lily Allen walks into the Top of the Pops dressing room, finds Carl Barat acting like God and organic sliced bread on a rider, goes home, and writes a blog post titled "Twats." It makes the national news.
Littlest Things, Lily Allen (official music video, directed by Nima Nourizadeh). The blog is all sharp edges and call-outs. This is the other side: a tender Mark Ronson production where Lily whispers about tiny romantic memories over a vintage sample.
The Hit List
Bob Geldof is "a cunt." Johnny Borrell of Razorlight "thinks he's some incredible Mick Jagger rock star." Pete Doherty "has to be exterminated." News organisations start reporting her MySpace posts as actual news.
Sources
Allen, Lily. MySpace blog posts, 2006.
"Lily Allen: The blogs that shook the music world." NME, 2006.
TAP TO REVEAL: The NME sexism call-out
Littlest Things, Lily Allen (2006)
Key of D minor. Produced by Mark Ronson at Allido Studios, New York. Built on a sample of "Sailing" by Bert Kaempfert (1970), a lounge-jazz instrumental that Ronson repurposes as a wistful, cinematic backdrop. Lily's voice drops to a near-whisper as she catalogues tiny romantic memories. The production is the most restrained on Alright, Still: no ska, no brass, just space and regret. The tenderness is the opposite of her blog persona, and that contrast is exactly why it hits so hard.
The Blog by the Numbers
Shame for You
From Alright, Still (2006). A deep cut about putting someone in their place, the same energy as the blog channelled into a bouncy ska-pop track. Lily doesn't need a blog post to humiliate you. She can do it in three minutes and twelve seconds.
Shame for You, Lily Allen (2006)
Follow the lyrics while you listen. The same blog energy channelled into a bouncy ska-pop track. Lily doesn't need a blog post to put you in your place.
What was the title of Lily Allen's most famous MySpace blog post?
The blog is a weapon, a confessional, and a press release rolled into one. Next episode: the hype machine is fully operational, and Lily Allen is about to find out what happens when fame grows faster than you can control it.
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