The portrait of Lily Allen from the cover of her recent hit album West End Girl has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The painting, by Spanish artist Nieves Gonzalez and owned by Allen, was unveiled on Thursday and will be on show for the next year.
It shows the singer sitting on a stool wearing a polka dot puffer jacket and boots revealing a tattoo on her left leg.
Allen, who also begins her three-night run of gigs at the London Palladium theatre on Friday, said: “I’m so pleased to make this special painting available for everyone to see.”
Lily Allen returns after a seven-year musical hiatus with an emotionally direct–even blunt–breakup record.
In fact it’s so emotionally direct that we’ll make the editorial choice here of sparing you the more bruising (perhaps cringe-inducing) portions of the story, which details the demise of her relationship with American actor David Harbour.
The “palace” she refers to in multiple songs is a fairly accurate description of the house she and Harbour offered a tour of for Architectural Digest.
As a songwriter, Allen is gifted with an arch sense of humor that can mold even the emotional distress of a breakup into worthwhile entertainment, as she’s done on the highlights we include.
The parts of the album one imagines were difficult to write would also be difficult to listen to repeatedly, the pain being almost too real at times. But the musical hooks make the songs irresistible nonetheless.
Listening to the cheekily-titled highlight “4Chan Stan” is like walking in on a marital spat. Allen isn’t one to dress up pain in cliche, generality or indirect reference. The unflinching detail makes it real, immediate. It’s great songwriting, provided you have the stomach for it.
Lily Allen can be sassy, bratty, clever and poignant–often all at the same time. “Littlest Things” is a look at how the ordinary moments and mundane memories can take on a rosy hue from the perspective of a relationship’s end:
Sometimes I find myself sittin’ back and reminiscing Especially when I have to watch other people kissin’ And I remember when you started callin’ me your Mrs. All the play fightin’, all the flirtatious disses I’d tell you sad stories about my childhood I don’t know why I trusted you but I knew that I could We’d spend the whole weekend lying in our own dirt I was just so happy in your boxers and your t-shirt
Dreams, dreams Of when we had just started things Dreams of you and me It seems, it seems That I can’t shake those memories I wonder if you have the same dreams too.
The littlest things that take me there I know it sounds lame but its so true I know its not right, but it seems unfair The things are reminding me of you Sometimes I wish we could just pretend Even if for only one weekend So come on, tell me Is this the end?
Drinkin’ tea in bed Watching dvd’s When I discovered all your dirty grotty magazines You’d take me out shopping and all we’d buy is trainers As if we ever needed anything to entertain us The first time that you introduced me to your friends And you could tell that I was nervous, so you held my hand When I was feeling down, you made that face you do No one in the world who could replace you
Dreams, dreams Of when we had just started things Dreams of me and you It seems, it seems That I can’t shake those memories I wonder if you feel the same way too
The littlest things that take me there I know it sounds lame but its so true I know its not right, but it seems unfair The things are reminding me of you Sometimes I wish we could just pretend Even if for only one weekend So come on, tell me Is this the end?
In other news you may have missed if you aren’t a pop Anglophile…
Lily Allen just scored a number 1 single on the British charts with a cover of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”, actually besting the band’s original, which peaked at number 3 there (#50 U.S.) in 2004.
After a three-year break from music, Allen has returned in a big way with two songs currently in the British top ten.
“Somewhere Only We Know” was featured in a Christmas advert by leading British retailer John Lewis, and the ad has been a runaway success there. Sales of a Hare and Bear alarm clock featured in the ad have exhausted supplies and the clocks are now selling on eBay for nearly three times the retail price.
The ad has surpassed 9 million views on YouTube….so of course, it was removed.
Lily Allen’s “Not Fair” is a genre-bender, as is its source album, 2009’s It’s Not Me It’s You. While the song and the album touch on country (nice Porter Wagoner bookend, by the way) it’s better described, I think, as “adult bubble gum”–definitely teeth-rottingly sweet, but pretty saucy on the lyrical side. So funny to be so taken by a song’s catchiness, then have that “wait–what did she just say?” moment. Good stuff.
Every Moment Has A Song 