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Lily Allen · S3 E1
Smile
The sweetest revenge song ever written — and a debut that made history
A basement studio in south London, early 2005. Lily Allen plays Future Cut a melody on her phone and tells them she wants to write a pop song about watching her ex's life fall apart, while sounding as happy as possible about it.
"Who'd Have Known" -- Lily Allen, official music video (2009). Three years after "Smile" makes her a star, Lily writes a love song that doubles as a letter to her audience. The video shows her at a house party surrounded by friends, stripped of every pop-star pretension.
The Afternoon Session
Future Cut are Darren Lewis and Tunde Babalola, two producers working out of a cramped south London studio who have been making garage and grime beats for years. Lily arrives with melodies in her head but no formal training, no demos, no music theory. They build the track in a single afternoon, looping a reggae sample and layering her vocal over it while she makes up lyrics on the spot.
“I remember writing the verse and the chorus and then them going, 'OK, we just need a middle eight,' and I was like, 'I don't know what that is.'”
— Lily Allen
TAP TO REVEAL: Where does the "Smile" beat come from?
Smile by the Numbers
Blank Expression -- Lily Allen
An Alright, Still era B-side that most fans have never heard. Where "Smile" is all cheerful revenge, "Blank Expression" is Lily going numb. The production is sparse, the vocal is flat on purpose, and the lyric is about staring at someone and feeling absolutely nothing.
Which record label signed Lily Allen before "Smile" was released?
"Smile" proves she can write a hit. But one hit does not make an album, and the sound of Alright, Still did not arrive by accident. Next: the sonic blueprint, the producers who built it, and the argument about whether Lily Allen is pop, ska, reggae, or something Britain has never heard before.
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