Lily Allen felt as though she lost her way on her last album 'Sheezus'.
Lily Allen
The pop star released her last LP - her third studio effort - back in 2014, but it was met with underwhelmed response from fans and critics and she was accused of cultural appropriation for using primarily black backing dancers in her video for lead single 'Hard Out Here' - which she defended as being a statement about the sexual objectification of women in the music business.
Lily now admits she didn't like the music she was making at the time and thinks she got things wrong.
In an interview on Julie Adenuga's 'Beats 1' Apple Music radio show, she said: "I think I had an identity crisis. I didn't like the clothes I was wearing, the songs that made it as singles ... like everything!"
Lily is getting to return to the music scene with her new record 'No Shame' and she has taken as much control of the creative direction of the tracks as she could.
The 32-year-old singer admits that the success or failure of the album will fall squarely on her shoulders and although she doesn't think it is a "10/10" LP she is confident it's the best collection she can make right now.
She explained: "I've really held my cards close to my chest for this one and I haven't really played it to many people and there are definite bonuses with that. I know that it's the best album that I can make and there haven't been any outside sources telling me what's right and what's wrong, what's going to work for radio and what isn't, so that's really great. That also means when it comes out, it's my fault ... I think a good way to describe it is you can almost say that the beginning of the album starts in the middle of a really bad night and it takes you all the way through that night, through the day and the next night is a bit better ... I don't think it's [the new album] 10/10, I'm never going to think that. But I think when I first started this game a lot of things happened, a lot of outside forces shaped who I became in people's minds. I take full responsibility for all of that. Also there are a lot of things I don't have control over ... With this record, I got so upset with all of those things I didn't have control over, especially as a woman, you're kind of sent out to."
Lily unveiled two new songs, 'Three' and 'Higher', on Friday (09.03.17) and 'No Shame' will be released on June 8 via Warner Music.
Tagged in Lily Allen