It’s always going to be difficult to assess a character like chav-pop mad-mouth Lily Allen, seeing as absolutely everyone has an opinion on her, regardless of whether they know who she is or how they arrived at it. Where does the kicking tabloid caricature end and the artiste begin? For these reasons alone you should be grateful for It’s Not You, It’s Me, as it finally crystallises all the chaos of the last couple of years into a succinct, sparkling and occasionally … mehrbrilliant album. Of course it isn’t as sweet as her debut, Alright, Still (which did have a candyfloss side and bright eyes in spite of its wordy bravado), but it is just as cheeky if you allow for the glitter, sheen and high production values that are working to elevate her to Proper Pop Star status. This is not an album that sounds like it came from lying on her bed on a Sunday morning putting her world to rights from the night before, but listen to the eloquent javelin-sharp sarcasm of “The Fear”, touching confessions of budding love on “Who’d Have Known”, or revelling in the ordinariness of a relationship on “Chinese” and you recognise the talent that got everyone excited about the ladette Mike Skinner in the first place, even if on those two softer moments she evokes Kate Nash more than Kate Nash does Lily Allen, oddly. Overall though, this chic electro pop matches and sometimes surpasses the ska-lite DIY of her debut. --James Berry weniger

1 - Everyone's At It
2 - The Fear
3 - Not Fair
4 - 22
5 - I Could Say… mehr
6 - Go Back To The Start
7 - Never Gonna Happen
8 - Fuck You
9 - Who'd Have Known
10 - Chinese
11 - Him
12 - He Wasn't There weniger