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Lily Allen · S4 E3
Not Fair
Sex, humor, and a country-pop banger about bad lovers
A BBC Radio 1 studio, spring 2009. The presenter asks Lily Allen what her new single is about, and she answers with a straight face: "It's about a bloke who's really lovely in every way except the one way that actually matters."
"Not Fair" -- Lily Allen, official music video (2009). Allen goes full Dolly Parton in a western-themed barn dance, complete with line dancing, cowboy hats, and a painted sunset backdrop. The most wholesome visual style in music is soundtracking the least wholesome song on the album.
Not Fair -- Lily Allen (2009)
Greg Kurstin builds the track around banjo, pedal steel guitar, and a bouncing Nashville rhythm that sounds like it belongs on a country radio playlist. The production is a deliberate mismatch: the warmer and more innocent the music sounds, the more explicit Allen's lyrics become. She sings about her boyfriend's inadequacy in bed with the same casual tone she might use to describe a disappointing takeaway. The contrast is what makes the song funny rather than crude, and Kurstin calibrated every note of that arrangement to make it land.
“The thought never occurred to me it would scare men. But guys are like, 'Whoa, no, I'm not sleeping with you in case you write something about it.'”
— Lily Allen, interview with thelondonpaper, August 2009
TAP TO REVEAL: Is 'Not Fair' about a real person?
The Double Standard
In 2009, mainstream pop had plenty of songs by men complaining about women in the bedroom. The reverse barely existed. Allen wrote "Not Fair" as a direct challenge to that imbalance, wrapped in the friendliest musical packaging she could find: a country song. The sugar-coated production was strategic, making the message impossible to dismiss as shock value.
Not Fair: The Facts
Never Gonna Happen -- Lily Allen
From It's Not Me, It's You (2009). If "Not Fair" is about what's wrong in the bedroom, "Never Gonna Happen" is the logical conclusion: walking away from someone who keeps trying to come back. Kurstin's production is crisp and punchy, matching Allen's delivery, which is pure finality. No anger, no sadness, just a door closing.
Never Gonna Happen -- Lily Allen (2009)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Allen doesn't leave room for ambiguity. Every line is a closed door, delivered with the politeness of someone who's already moved on.
Why did Kurstin choose a country arrangement for a song about bad sex?
The jokes are over. Next: "22," the song where Allen holds up a mirror to every woman who's ever been told she's running out of time, and the result is the most devastating track on the album.
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