Lily Allen – Hard Out Here

“Is the music any good?”

Tom: If the big “Explicit Content” doesn’t tip you off: this isn’t suitable for kids.

Tom: “Don’t need to shake my arse for you ‘cos I’ve got a brain”, she says, shaking her arse. Is it possible to be ironically doing something without, you know, actually doing it?

Tim: That’s kind of what I thought – sure, it might be ‘ironic’, but it’s still there and if you’re ostensibly trying to protest about it why do it at all? But I suppose if you weren’t doing it you wouldn’t be able to smoke E-Lite electronic cigarettes so seductively.

Tom: So leaving aside the issues in the video, ‘cos heaven knows everyone’ll be debating them for untold weeks until the next controversial video comes along: is the music any good?

Tim: Erm, well…not so much for me, no.

Tom: The production’s brilliant. The instrumental’s great. But the lyrics? The middle eight that just samples of the word ‘bitch’ – badly? The terrible autotune? No doubt the latter’s for effect, given what she’s taking aim at, but that doesn’t make it any better.

Tim: Yeah – it’s back with the arse-shaking, as thought she wants it to be a talking point. Which is sort of okay, but maybe don’t embrace it quite so thoroughly?