Album Review: Lily Allen "Sheezus"

Lily Allen
Sheezus
Regal/Parlophone
Released: May 5th

After the success of 2009's "It's Not Me, It's You", Lily Allen announced that she was stepping away from the musical spotlight.  The singer/songwriter then proceeded to get married, have two kids, a Twitter feud with antagonist extraordinaire Azealia Banks, change her name, change it back then reveal that she was working on album #3, the homage to Kanye West's polarizing "Yeezus" LP.
Title track and album opener, "Sheezus" name checks a number of female singers, including Rihanna and Beyonce, claiming she wants to be the head diva amongst the sea of chart toppers. "L8 CMMR,"the double entente track included on the "Girls" Soundtrack is dizzying, bouncy, overly autotuned extravaganza that should have replaced "Air Balloon" as the follow-up to the controversy magnet that was "Hard Out Here", a crash course in Allen-style feminism, criticizing the music industries double standard when it comes to the image of her male contemporaries. Why it's at the end of the record is a questionable though. "URL Badman" takes aim at bloggers and the people who frequent them making scathing comments over a dubstep
The aforementioned "Air Balloon" is almost too sugary to handle, with its lullaby-inspired production and the sing-song chorus. Though Allen herself condemned the singles via social media, you would think she would take the initiative to delegate them to a bonus track to highlight the better parts of the disk, especially the  "Insincerely Yours" which adds model Jordin Dunn to the laundry list of girls in the industry. "Sheezus" does come off a bit too try hard to distance itself as a social commentary record masquerading as a pop album. The only glimpse of the whole motherly spiel that Allen claimed to be going for is "Life For Me",  a commentary, describing how sometimes she doesn't feel like romping around in the bedroom because of the exhaustion but she wouldn't have it any other way. "Sheezus" has a lot to like about it, however, it could easily be an ace if it decided whether it wanted to be an "Electra Heart" or a "It's Not Me, It's You" rehash.
Recommended Tracks: Sheezus, L8 CMMR, "Insincerely Yours", "Take My Place", "Come On Over", "URL Badman", "Life For Me"