Continued from page 22
By 2012, Cooper was Allen again, and
tweeting about a tentative return to the
studio – with longtime collaborator Greg
Kurstin – for Album # 3. Along the way,
she also got married to a builder and decorator named Sam Cooper, with whom she
has had two daughters, Ethel Mary, nearly
3, and Marnie Rose, 1. Before Sheezus was
completed, she cut a cover of Keane's hit
"Somewhere Only We Know" for the John
Lewis department store's Christmas 2013
commercial. It rocketed the MIA artist
right back to the #1 position on the English
charts, followed by "Hard Out Here,"
which climbed to #9. Out of nowhere,
Allen was back, with two songs in the Top
10, simultaneously. Sheezus – with a sly
cover shot depicting the singer with a pack
of corgis, in a sly wink to the Queen of
England – finally
streeted this May. And
she's already building
the foundation of its
followup.
Today, she admits
that she prefers some
of the starker, more
sonically-adventurous
cuts from the Sheezus
deluxe-edition bonus
disc, like "Who Do You
Love?,"
"Miserable
Without Your Love,"
and the ultimate f-ckoff to snooping gossip
hounds, "Wind Your
Neck In" (naturally,
the Keane track is
included). Word even
circulated that Allen
was displeased with
Sheezus, proper, in retrospect. "But that's not
true," she clarifies. "I
would never have
delivered an album if I
didn't stand by it, and I do stand by it. But
it's kind of a weird record for me, because
I was all over the place, hormonally. I was
pregnant, and then pregnant again with
another baby, and then not pregnant, and
my hormones were going crazy. So it's a little schizophrenic, but I love it for those reasons.
"The problems I've had with the album
was the release schedule, and their choice
of singles," she continues. "With different
record companies in different countries
releasing different singles at different
times. It was a little confused, and that's
not usually how I like to present myself.
But I think that's probably because of the
state of the industry right now." What's
going on in the music biz, exactly? Allen
sighs, pauses, gets ready to unleash holy
hell. "No one's got a fucking clue what
they're doing," she says of modern execs.
"And I got sick of having conversations
with people who were pretending that
they do. So it's like 'You know what?
Here's the music. Do what you want with
it. I'm going to go back into the studio.'
And until I'm out of a deal, that's my only
choice. So all I can do is keep writing
songs, keep handing them over, and just
hope for the best. But to be honest, commercial success isn't really what interests
me anymore. As long as people buy tickets
24 illinoisentertainer.com october 2014
to my concerts and enjoy themselves, then
that's all that counts."
Allen's stage persona is more sobering
now. At least a tad. She appeared at a New
York concert recently, dressed in a baggy
jumper embroidered with her name, Lily,
on the front, draped over a skirt inlaid with
baby bottles, not decapitated forest fauna.
Her daughters, she purrs, "are my guides,
really – everything I do is for them. And
not just in a financial way. I think it's really
important to set an example to your kids
that you have to work hard in this life. And
not just because it puts a roof over your
head and food on your table, but because
you need it for your own moral fiber. If
you're handed something on a plate or
you're entitled in this world, you just end
up being a very unhappy person. And
believe me, I know a lot of them. So both
myself and my husband are totally dedicated – not only to each other – but to our
work and our children. And I hope that we
can carry on that tradition."
The mom hopes she'll set a good example for young female fans, as well.
Especially in an era when role models are
few and far between,
varying from R&B performers like Rihanna
jiggling her up-close
derriere in videos to
shallow
"XFactor"/"American
Idol" parrots who chirp
other composer's songs
with an exaggerated
sense of entitlement.
Allen wants to say
something, but she
catches herself. "I, uhh,
can't really comment
on any of that stuff,"
she says quietly, taking
the trash-free high
road. "It has nothing to
do with me. Rihanna
shakes her ass in front
of a camera because
she's got a great ass,
and that's what she
wants to do. And I
don't think it's somebody
pulling
her
strings and telling her to do that, you
know? I know when I'm on photo