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Lily Allen · S7 E8
The Album
No Shame becomes her masterpiece — and almost nobody buys it
September 2018. No Shame has the best reviews of Lily Allen's career and the worst first-week sales of any of her albums.
"Back to the Start" by Lily Allen (2009). As the No Shame story wraps up, this It's Not Me, It's You track feels like a prophecy. The title says everything about where Lily finds herself at the end of four albums: stripped back to the beginning, everything demolished and rebuilt, starting over with nothing but her voice and the truth.
The Reviews
No Shame receives the strongest reviews of Lily Allen's career. Publications that dismissed Sheezus as a disappointment fall over themselves to praise the follow-up, calling it raw, honest, and the album she was always capable of making. For the first time since It's Not Me, It's You, the critics and Lily are completely aligned.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did No Shame's sales compare to the album critics hated?
Back to the Start, Lily Allen (2009)
'Back to the Start' is one of the most underrated tracks in Lily Allen's catalogue. The production is warm Kurstin: a mid-tempo beat with strings that swell gently underneath, giving the whole track a bittersweet quality somewhere between nostalgia and resignation. Listen for how the melody resolves downward at the end of each chorus, as if the song itself is settling into acceptance. It's the sound of someone who has made peace with going backwards in order to move forward.
“I didn't make No Shame to sell records. I made it because I needed to tell the truth about what happened to me. If people hear it, great. If they don't, at least it exists.”
— Lily Allen, NME interview (June 2018)
No Shame: The Verdict
The Legacy
No Shame's modest sales don't diminish what it is: the most honest and critically acclaimed album Lily Allen has made. It proves she can strip everything away, tell the truth without flinching, and still make a record that holds together from first track to last. The title promised no shame, and the album delivered on every syllable.
Cake, Lily Allen
'Cake' is the final track on No Shame, and it closes the album with something none of the other thirteen songs offer: lightness. After the confessions, the lullabies, the divorce, and the raw admissions, this track lets Lily Allen exhale. If the season needs a closing song, this is it.
Cake, Lily Allen (2018)
The lyrics tell you everything the music doesn't. After fourteen tracks of pain, these are the last words Lily Allen leaves you with on No Shame. The album that started with a dare ends with something gentler: permission to let go.
No Shame was shortlisted for which major British music award in 2018?
Three months after No Shame, Lily Allen publishes a memoir called My Thoughts Exactly. She names names, describes assaults, and accuses the industry of protecting the people who hurt her.
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