“We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear – fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on a vague charge of being a terrorist sympathizer.”

-Hunter S. Thompson, “Extreme Behavior In Aspen,” February 3, 2003.

A couple of week ago, maybe two to be more precise, a friend said this to me: “Have you heard ‘The Fear’ yet? I know you’re a fan.” I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about so my first thoughts went immediately to Hunter S. Thompson, whose musings on the Fear (and the Loathing) I’ve always been a fan of. Also, for some strange reason, my thoughts also went back to this:

Donnie Darko, which is, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, such a cliche now. They’re making a sequel, which is the kind of thing that stirs unneccesary fear in me. The only cast member returning for it is the girl who played Donnie’s little sister, Daveigh Chase, who’s made quite an interesting filmography for herself, including appearing as Samara in the American remake of The Ring. She was smart enough to not return for the second one, but apparently not that smart when it comes to a Donnie Darko sequel.

But no, what he was referring to was Lily Allen’s new single, “The Fear,” from her upcoming album, It’s Not Me, It’s You. It looks and sounds a little something like this:

Here I am again, excited about an album that’s yet to come out (the release date is scheduled for the end of January) when I should be reflecting on music from this year right about now. I guess that tells you a lot about music from this year, huh?

Lily Allen is a lot like my love for Metric, in that I loved her before she came to America, and then she did and the rest of you heard about her (“the rest of you” being admittedly a very general term when I’m mostly talking about those of you who suck), and (suck hard) it just ruined it (you know who you are) for me. But time has passed (and soon the Fear with it) and as this year comes to an end, I’m looking forward to what next year might have in store for us.

I’ve previously shared Lily Allen’s “Guess Who Batman (Fuck You Very Much)” about our current President, so today I’ll share with you her cover of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer.” You can also listen to Ladyhawke’s cover of the same song here (if I had to make you a best of 2008 list, which I probably will, Ladyhawke could certainly be on it, just not in the top 20). And though I don’t care about Britney pretty much at all, I will say that the recent Rolling Stone interview with her is a very interesting look at a completely manufactured and manipulated woman, devoid of a childhood and trying to appear sexy over fresh beats and a crumbling life. The stuff of pure pop genius in 2008, maybe?

Lily Allen - Womanizer (Britney cover)(mp3)