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Lily Allen · S4 E5
Everyone's at It
Drug culture, hypocrisy, and the song that called everyone out
A house party in North London, 2008. Every single person in the room is on something, and Lily Allen is standing in the corner thinking: this would make a brilliant opening track.
"Everyone's at It" -- Lily Allen, live at Glastonbury (2014). Five years after the album, Allen brings the opening track to the biggest festival stage in Britain. The song was never released as a single, but the Glastonbury crowd knows every word. There's something fitting about performing a song about drug hypocrisy at a festival where half the audience is proving her point.
Everyone's at It -- Lily Allen (2009)
Kurstin opens the album with a driving synth riff and a pulsing electronic beat that feels deliberately claustrophobic, like being trapped at a party you can't leave. Allen's vocal is conversational, listing the drugs her friends take with the same tone you'd use to read a shopping list. The production builds toward the chorus where she finally drops the observation that makes the song sting: everyone's doing it, but nobody wants to talk about it. It's the most musically aggressive track on the album, and Kurstin puts it first for a reason.
The Elephant in the Room
By 2008, casual drug use in London's music and media circles was so normalised it barely registered as notable. Allen grew up around it, participated in it, and eventually stepped back far enough to see the contradiction. She wasn't preaching sobriety. She was pointing out that everyone was pretending they weren't doing exactly the same thing.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why did Allen and Kurstin put this song first on the album?
Notting Hill, London
The neighborhood where Allen grew up and where much of the casual drug culture she describes played out among her circle of friends, musicians, and media figures.
Everyone's at It: Quick Hits
Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind
'Semi-Charmed Life' is the ultimate song about drugs disguised as a pop hit. The sunny melody hides lyrics about crystal meth addiction, and most people singing along have no idea. The same trick Lily Allen uses on 'Everyone's at It': wrap the uncomfortable truth in a melody so catchy nobody notices what they're dancing to.
Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind (1997)
The happiest-sounding song ever written about drug addiction. Read the lyrics knowing what they actually describe, and the smile on your face will disappear.
What is Lily Allen's main argument in 'Everyone's at It'?
Hypocrisy has been called out, but Allen has saved her biggest target for last. Next: "Fuck You," the sweetest-sounding protest song ever recorded, aimed at a world leader she'd very much like to tell off.
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