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One of the brightest, most refreshingly original female singers to emerge from the UK in the last dozen years, Allen suffered several personal and professional setbacks, including her split from the father of her two daughters, a battle with substance abuse and the lukewarm response to her last album, 2014’s Sheezus. Allen has also been given a rough ride by the British tabloid press. But her’s fourth album is a triumphant comeback in which the 33-year-old “Smile” singer has taken control of her story with starkly honest confessional songs. On “Apples,” she sings quietly over a simple keyboard riff about how her breakup with her husband mirrors her parents’ divorce. And she tackles her bad p...

Allen has a notoriously cheeky side. On her early hits like “LDN” and “Smile,” she delivered witticisms in Cockney over reggae rhythms. Her insouciance caused controversies, but she always remained undeniably charming. After a pair of albums, Lily took a break in 2009 to have two daughters. Now she’s back with her typically brazen observations. On the title track, she expresses fear about rejoining pop’s “changing” game while name-checking frontrunners like Beyoncé. On “URL Badman” and “Silver Spoon,” she skewers online haters and takes a satirical view of her showbiz upbringing. But much of Sheezus is a reflection of married life. Lily’s love for her husband, builder-decorator Sam Cooper, s...

Tours can take their toll on the most experienced rock musician. But if you’re a suddenly hot young singer from England, and you find yourself catapulted into a seemingly endless series of concerts, interviews and promotional appearances across the North American continent, it can be downright dizzying. That was the state Lily Allen was in this past April. The pint-sized pop star was at her wit’s end on the tail end of a three-month tour that had seen her perform more than 60 shows, make dozens of TV appearances and conduct literally hundreds of interviews. The morning after a sold-out appearance at Toronto’s Phoenix Theatre spoke to Inside E, and the fatigue in her voice was palpable. Touri...