Lily Allen Alright, Still Review

Lily Allen: her of heart-shaped earrings, fluorescent eye liner and summer anthem "Smile", has created a neat, cohesive debut, describing urban life from the clever girl's perspective. The cockney accent and little melodies will invite comparison to chavvy soul-brother Mike Skinner, but these are songs in a completely different league: laugh out loud funny, clever, and satisfyingly vengeful.

We're talking about bad credit ratings, unattractive coke abuse, unwanted chat ups, useless lovers and colourful nightclub politics, like "Friday Night", set to a backing reminiscent of the Specials' "Ghost Town". This girl's far too smart for the crappy nights out, rubbish mates and loser exes she wryly describes.

Many of her reggae-fused songs stick in your head whilst you desperately suss out why they're familiar, but she rips off her influences with a comic acknowledgement, like "Shame For You", which blatantly lifts the chorus hook from "You Don't Love Me (No No No)" by Dawn Penn. I'm just sad that her song about her nanna being covered in cat hair didn't make it. Maybe on the follow up ...