Lily Allen, critical theorist: 'The Fear'

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but I'm thoroughly rocked by Lily Allen's current song and video, 'The Fear':

Life's about film stars and less about mothers
It's all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn't matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic

And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and it's not my fault it's how I'm programmmed to function
I'll look at the sun and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track yeah I'm on to a winner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
I don't know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear
'Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear

Now that's a great artist, her radar on full. She's in the midst of her high-consumerist, high-celebrity life, yet able to talk just as clearly about the anxieties and worries that everyone has about living in commodity-drenched, sharply-meritocratic British society. And she does it as a hip, smart, pretty woman. The five-star Observer review gets it absolutely right.

She doubly affects me because, in my other life as a musician, I recently brought out a song (with my brother Greg in Hue And Cry), called Headin' For A Fall (available now!!) which touches all the same topics. But as you'll see from the video below, there's a difference between a carefree twenty-something girl capturing the zeitgeist perfectly, and two careworn forty-somethings agonising sweatily about the near-future. Still, it's nice to be out there signifying at the same time. All power to you, Ms. Allen. 

 

White lies coming out of every mouth around me baby and I
Simply don’t know who to believe
Blue skies are pixellated on a screen above my head
And I wish that it only was a dream

I’m reeling from the Real because it hits me like I’ve run into a wall
Better get me some momentum because otherwise I’m heading for a fall

Big time politicians standing on their favorite stage tonight
Wonder how else they get their kix
Apple pie and motherhood and wireless in the neighbourhood
Oh my, we need a brand new bag of tricks

Instinctively I feel that it’s important to be stylishly appalled
Though lately I do recognise it’s likely that we’re heading for a fall

(For explanation of the lyric, go to the Hue And Cry Music Club)