Our urban poets

Mike E meet Lily

This week sees the release of Mike E Skinner's third album, 'The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living' and having bought a real physical copy yesterday, two of us at fuk's London HQ spontaneously shed tears whilst listening to 'Never Went To Church' for the first time.

Hot on his heels, April 24 sees the release of the debut single by 20 year-old Hammersmith-born poet, Lily Allen, whose 'LDN' drops on limited edition 7" vinyl. Lily's tunes have been building her an online following for a while now and in December 2005, she signed to Parlaphone Records, upsetting the A&R manager at Polydor, Seb Chew, who cites her as his "one that got away".

LDN is a beguiling summery tune which celebrates London: "Riding through the city on my bike all day/ Cos the filth took away my licence" and "a fella looking dapper sitting with a slapper/ Then I see it is a pimp and his crack whore". Lily's lyrics are documentary dialogues. In 'Nan You're A Window Shopper' the Islington girl berates her Nan for "buying the paper to cut out the coupons/You save 50p, but what do you want with tampons?" and in "Everything's Just Wonderful', a lament about bad credit preventing her from getting a mortage, Lily says "all the magazines they talk about weight loss/If I buy those jeans then I can look like Kate Moss".

You can see Lily live on May 4th at Notting Hill Arts Club, tickets cost £5, her second single, 'Smile' will drop on July 10, but as yet no release date has been set for the album.