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Yesterday, charming blogabout Lily Allen debuted “The Fear,” the lead single off her forthcoming album It’s Not Me, It’s You. The song is a brighter version of a track she previewed on MySpace back in April, and it burbles along nicely, with shiny synths underscoring Lily’s simple singalong melodies. But I’m also interested in how Parlophone, her label in the UK, decided to treat the pre-video period on YouTube, because it actually represents something of a smart move.
Usually when a new track makes its way to the Web, YouTube fills up with unauthorized rips of the track, featuring visuals that are promo pics (sometimes stitched together with your Windows Media Maker wipes, often static) and maybe the lyrics on the side. They’re also embeddable, so people (cough cough) can stick them on their blogs, or what-have-you. Parlophone decided to beat the YouTubers at their own game, though, creating an embeddable video that not only streams the song, it gives details on how to preorder the album. Sure, there’s a glitch in that it only gives instructions on how to order It’s Not Me, It’s You from Amazon UK—I hope, hope, hope this doesn’t mean it’s going to suffer the “released in the States months later with a Mims remix” fate that Kylie Minogue’s X did—and yeah, I know that the whole idea of making music available easily should seem patently obvious, but I’m feeling generous, and with major labels, you kind of have to treat every Internet baby step like you would that of a just-about-to-toddler.
Lily Allen – The Fear [YouTube]
I love this song. I can’t really tell if it’s been re-recorded thanks to less-than-superb audio quality on Youtube’s part, but this along with all the other pre-release tracks out there make me think her next album is going to never leave my iPod.
…I am a weapon of massive consumption, and it’s not my fault, it’s how I’m programmed to function…
I soooooo <3 Lily Allen.
This song is teh goodz. She should spend more time writing songs and less time talking/blogging/hosting
Ultimately I’m indifferent towards her but I think it’s a sign of something (as much on the label’s part as anyone’s) that I saw multiple copies of her last album at Amoeba used…in clearance.
I hope, hope, hope this doesn’t mean it’s going to suffer the “released in the States months later with a Mims remix” fate that Kylie Minogue’s X did
Or it could mean they’ll release it in the States months later w/bonus tracks, like they did with Alright, Still. (Decent song, btw.)
@Michaelangelo Matos: But it really raises the question of why oh why–in the supposed global society–we don’t just release stuff all on the same day all around the world. It’s ludicrous at these point that each country’s division of these megaconglomerate labels acts like a weird proprietary fiefdom.
I think the album is receiving a simultaneous release in the US and in the UK, though of course the fact that that isn’t being publicized is just stupid.
It’s sounds kinda Girls Aloudish, which is not a bad thing at all.
Sounds more like Jem.
It sounds brilliant on the radio. Was debuted yesterday here in the UK.
This is actually quite nice, which is surprising as I found her debut pretty yawn-worthy.
Is the radio version sort of muddy sounding like this one? I hope so, because this is great. I’m really looking forward to the album