Finally, Lily Allen is back after a four-year hiatus from music and at long last unveiled a new song and video. Her upcoming third album's first cut is the hilarious, yet realistic "Hard Out Here" takes the 28-year-old songstress into Auto-tuned, deeply sarcastic territory, as Allen tears into society's outlandish expectations for females. The Pop usurper's triumphant return takes crack shots at industry sexism and her video details the challenges faced by young women living in a post-Kardashian sex tape era.
Following the release of her cover of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" on last Sunday, Allen is properly back with this sweary, controversy-stirring ode to gender inequality. It seemed like an odd way for a pop star so used to over-sharing her own experiences into perfectly constructed, attitude-heavy pop to come back, which is where "Hard Out Here" comes in. Teased earlier via a Twitter Q&A that involved questions based on mistreated females from history, "Hard Out Here" is very much the opposite to the safe, pipe-and-slippers-sporting Keane cover.
A feminist anthem through and through, "Hard Out Here" tackles everything from tired gender roles and expectations to double standards regarding sex and appearance for men and women. Allen wears her classic wry smirk throughout the whole video, during which her manager tries to reinvent her as a champagne popping, e-cig smoking twerking machine. She sings sweetly over a typically jaunty piano-lead beat by way of a reintroduction, before the song rattles through a series of gender injustices that positions Allen at the forefront for change.
The Christopher Sweeney-directed visual is a scathing takedown of music industry sexism, involving a lot of ironic twerking and such a perfect fit for the song, as Allen throws major shade at the current pop culture. It starts with Allen undergoing liposuction wearing full makeup. Her male manager asks, "Jesus, how could somebody let themselves get like this". She defends herself saying “Um, I had two babies," but he and a doctor ignore her and continue talking about her as if she isn't there. Allen begins to mime and then jumps off the operating table. Then she removes her hospital gown and begins a synchronized dance routine with some female twerking dancers.
Following the release of her cover of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" on last Sunday, Allen is properly back with this sweary, controversy-stirring ode to gender inequality. It seemed like an odd way for a pop star so used to over-sharing her own experiences into perfectly constructed, attitude-heavy pop to come back, which is where "Hard Out Here" comes in. Teased earlier via a Twitter Q&A that involved questions based on mistreated females from history, "Hard Out Here" is very much the opposite to the safe, pipe-and-slippers-sporting Keane cover.
A feminist anthem through and through, "Hard Out Here" tackles everything from tired gender roles and expectations to double standards regarding sex and appearance for men and women. Allen wears her classic wry smirk throughout the whole video, during which her manager tries to reinvent her as a champagne popping, e-cig smoking twerking machine. She sings sweetly over a typically jaunty piano-lead beat by way of a reintroduction, before the song rattles through a series of gender injustices that positions Allen at the forefront for change.
The Christopher Sweeney-directed visual is a scathing takedown of music industry sexism, involving a lot of ironic twerking and such a perfect fit for the song, as Allen throws major shade at the current pop culture. It starts with Allen undergoing liposuction wearing full makeup. Her male manager asks, "Jesus, how could somebody let themselves get like this". She defends herself saying “Um, I had two babies," but he and a doctor ignore her and continue talking about her as if she isn't there. Allen begins to mime and then jumps off the operating table. Then she removes her hospital gown and begins a synchronized dance routine with some female twerking dancers.
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