Listen: Lily Allen drifts away in new single 'Air Balloon'

By Mikael Wood

Jan. 13, 2014 4:16 PM PT

The Lily Allen comeback continues.

After returning to music late last year with the controversial “Hard Out Here” -- which itself followed her guest spot on Pink’s “True Love” and her TV-commercial cover of “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane -- the British singer early Monday released another song expected to appear on her upcoming third studio album.

In “Air Balloon,” Allen adopts a softer-edged tone than she did in “Hard Out Here,” which took delightful aim at the music-industry sexism she evidently experienced in the wake of the birth of her two children.

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Here, in contrast, she sings about how “when I’m bored, I kind of drift away” over a bouncy synth-pop groove. And she shouts out Kurt Cobain.

Allen co-wrote “Air Balloon” with Shellback, the young Swedish producer behind (or partially behind) hits by Pink, Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift; he also produced the cut.

The singer hasn’t announced when she’ll release her next album, the follow-up to 2009’s “It’s Not Me, It’s You.” But more Allen music is on the way: According to Entertainment Weekly, she’ll have another new track, “Late Comer,” on the second soundtrack album for HBO’s “Girls,” due Feb. 11.

Listen to “Air Balloon” below.