Sheezus (Deluxe Edition)

Name-checking a host of other female pop stars, Lily Allen opens her third album with a plainspoken demand: “Gimme that crown… I wanna be Sheezus.” The charts would have a lot more moxie under Allen’s reign—Sheezus is brimming with sarcastic one-liners and quick-witted feminist jabs. Produced largely by GRAMMY®-winning songwriter Greg Kurstin (Foster the People, Ellie Goulding), Allen’s songs can be playfully sweet (the sweeping “Air Balloon” and the bubbling “L8 CMMR”), sardonic (the midtempo highlight “Our Time”), or downright salty (the anti-misogyny tirade of “Hard out Here”). But it’s the songwriter’s whip-smart intelligence that gives the big hooks of Sheezus lasting substance.