There wasn’t supposed to be another album. Sick of the negative press in her native England and wanting to focus on her family, the singer Lily Allen announced in 2009 she was quitting the music business after two successful pop albums.
When it was revealed that she was pregnant with her second child and when she opened a London fashion boutique with her sister last year, the die was seemingly cast and critics began eulogising what had been a short yet mercurial career.
Secretly, however, a heavily pregnant Allen was still writing tunes that would eventually become this year's comeback album, Sheezus.
The 29-year-old says her different mindset post-pregnancy did not mean she had to scrap any of the earlier tracks when she got back into the recording studio.
“I never waste songs,” she says. “The way I judge it is that if the song is written then I am going to use it. If I didn’t finish the song then I know there is probably a reason why I didn’t. I never really go back and change stuff.”
Sheezus marks a shift from her established pop and reggae-lite sounds towards exploring new styles, including 1990s hip-hop and synth-pop. Her aim was diversity.
“I wanted to cover as many emotional bases as I could,” she says. “Sometimes you just have different moods. One day you wake up crappy and feeling sad and heart-broken. The next thing you know, it’s Friday evening and you want to go out with your friends. Both of these are just as important as each other.”
You can also add romance and anger into the Sheezus mix. Underpinning the 13 tracks are Allen's secret weapon – those top-shelf lyrics that are equally witty and revealing.
The dance-hall of L8 CMMR is a quirky ode to her husband (My lover, my lover/ Shoots and scores like he's Maradona), while the big bass of URL Bad Man drips with caustic sarcasm as Allen targets her online trolls (I think you're worthless/ I wrote a long piece about it up on my WordPress).
Allen says her lyric-writing is a visceral process.
“I write about what I am feeling at the moment,” she says. “It has to be for me, otherwise it won’t be honest. It won’t be me.”
With the album due for release in May, Allen gingerly returned to the melting pot of the United Kingdom's tabloid scene and controversy immediately ensued, over the Kanye West-aping album title and the twerk-heavy video for the single Hard Out Here that some suggested was racist, a charge she vehemently denies.
It is perhaps no wonder Allen enjoys being away from home.
Speaking from Los Angeles in the middle of a North American tour, Allen describes life on the road as refreshing.
“It becomes more about the music,” she explains. “People here don’t really know me for anything other than my music. I don’t feel like I am being judged. The reviews are normally about the music and not about what I am wearing or how many cigarettes I smoke.”
Allen’s overseas jaunt culminates in Dubai on Friday with a headline slot at Party in The Park, on a bill that also includes former The Verve frontman and Britpop icon Richard Ashcroft, and indie-rockers The Ting Tings.
Allen says the tour has been a rejuvenating experience.
“I enjoy myself on stage,” she says. “We mix things around on stage, there is a lot of interesting visuals going on and musically it is diverse – and I throw in a few covers in the set as well. It is going to be a lot of fun.”
