Lily Allen is the latest MySpace pop princess from the U.K., and she’s got a mouth on her. In fact, Allen is like that voice in your head always coming up with those witty one-liners just moments after the argument with your boyfriend has ended — comebacks you only dream of uttering at the right moment. On “Not Big,” for example, Allen bites off a big old chunk of sass and spits it right back out: “Let’s see how you feel in a couple of weeks when I work my way through your mates.”

But ultimately, Allen’s debut is just a great dance record. Like many Brits growing up in the ’90s, she listened to a lot of reggae, ska, and Britpop (as well as some T. Rex and Kate Bush). And these form the foundation of such tracks as “Smile,” a ska groove bouncing underneath a baroque arrangement full of girly pianos and soft horns, all shot through with Allen’s wiseass feminine mystique.

Allen conquered her home turf nearly a year ago, and she’s now striving to do the same here. And though she’s an unconventional pop diva by our standards, Allen is a welcome break from the half-naked fembots mindlessly gyrating on TRL.

This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2007.