Lily Allen vs. Amy Winehouse - Courtesy Of YouTube

Here's the adorable Lily Allen and the sultry Amy Winehouse, two British sensations who're also catching on in North America.

The first time you hear Lily Allen's "LDN", you might think it's a bubbly throwaway akin to "Walking On Sunshine" or "Steal My Sunshine", but if you pay attention to the lyrics you'll see that it's more than that. "If you look with your eyes/Everything seems nice/But if you look twice/You can see it's all lies."

I love this single, so I was disappointed to learn that the album has some serious clunkers, and the lyrics sometimes make her seem like a spoiled little brat, which is part of her take-no-crap charm for some people, I suppose, but "LDN" is far less self-absorbed than most of her songs, and easily the best thing on the album, although "Knock 'Em Out", a song about finding a polite way to brush off men who aggressively hit on women in bars, ranks a close second.

Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" sounds remarkably like old-school soul music, so it's hard to believe that voice belongs to a twenty-something Brit. At first I had issues with the lyrics to this song because I don't think alcoholism is something to make light of, but the music and her slightly slurred delivery eventually won me over in a Shane MacGowan, lovable rogue kind of way. Still, I can't help but think that if your management company is suggesting that you check into rehab, it might be something worth considering. Sure, dumping your management company instead and then writing a hit song about it is a story that will probably be talked about for years, unless she realizes in six months that continually cancelling performances due to "unforseen circumstances" ie. throwing up backstage because you're too drunk to perform, seems kinda pathetic after a while. So if she does check into rehab it'll be good for her health, but it'll ruin the mystique of this song and her career might never recover. She's sort of sung herself into a corner, hasn't she?

Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse have been feuding in the British media for a while now, but only time will tell if their rivalry will live up to the epic Blur vs. Oasis battles that gave the UK press so much to write about a decade ago, or if Allen and Winehouse will even be remembered in ten years. If I was a betting man, I'd say that Lily Allen has a good chance of sticking around, but the jury's still out on Winehouse. She's got a unique voice and an intriguing delivery, but if her drinking is as bad as it's made out to be in this song and the media reports that inspired it, she may be on a fast track to becoming the next Courtney Love, and nobody wants that.




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