"Everything's Just Wonderful" by Lily Allen // Song Review

- January 26, 2026

"Everything's Just Wonderful" inhabits the sarcastic, dry wit that has always made Lily Allen stand out as an artist. This is such an underrated gem of Y2K British indie pop and a sharp, clever classic from her 2006 debut Alright, Still. The song pokes fun at modern society with her signature biting humor and sarcasm. Structurally, it's also surprisingly unconventional for a mid‑2000s pop single, leaning into a kind of conversational storytelling that felt refreshingly blunt at the time. Co‑written and produced with her frequent collaborator Greg Kurstin, this song pairs a light, carefree melody with lyrics that contrast with a much daker undertone.

The song is an interesting satirical commentary on many political and societal pressures that have remained very relevant since the time it was written. "Do you think everything, everyone is going mental?" Lily sings in the opening lines. "It seems to me we're spiraling outta control, and it's inevitable, now don't you think this time is yours, this time is mine? It's temperamental, it seems to me, we're on all fours, crawling on our knees, someone help us, please".

Even though it was released twenty years ago, the overall sentiment of this song continues to mirror much of the collective frustration that defines so much of the world today. The unfiltered honesty of the line, "Oh, Jesus Christ almighty, do I feel alright? No, not slightly," is especially such an accurate and simple way of capturing the exhaustion of trying to live up to unrealistic standards, especially as women, and also having to witness the constant stream of horrors in the news and all around us.

"Oh well, I guess I mustn't grumble, I suppose that's just the way the cookie crumbles," she sings, pretty much summing up the disillusionment that so many young people feel when they're told to accept the world as it is rather than try to change it. She later sings in the breezy, light chorus, "Oh, yes, I'm fine, everything's just wonderful, I'm having the time of my life".

The feeling of needing to force optimism just to keep yourself from losing your mind runs through the entire song, especially that longing to live in a better world and wishing you had the power to make it happen, even while knowing you don't. Lily writes from a deeply personal place with the song, opening up about financial troubles, body image and disordered eating habits, but she also writes from the lens of broader unfair societal norms that everyone has just come to accept over time.

That feeling of being fed-up with the way everything has been running for so long is especially prevalent in the second verse when she sings, "Don't you want something else, something new than what we've got here? And don't you feel it's all the same, some sick game, and it's so insincere? I wish I could change the ways of the world, make it a nice place, until that day, I guess we stay doing what we do, screwing who we screw".

She continues the sharp cultural critique that was very obviously written from a very personal place in the second pre-chorus. She sings, "In the magazines, they talk about weight loss, if I buy those jeans, I can look like Kate Moss," she sings in the second pre-chorus. "I know it's not the life that I chose, but I guess that's the way that things go". That line in particular is a pointed reflection of the standards women are made to feel they must live up to. Those expectations certainly haven't disappeared by any means, but they were especially pervasive in the early 2000s, when tabloid culture and hyper‑thin supermodels dominated the beauty ideals of the time.

"The second verse is all about the issues with weight that we have in this country, which, not just in this country, maybe just in the capitalist world we live in, where it's become ridiculous. I mean, I remember kind of like five, ten years ago, it was like they'd have pictures on the front of those magazines that were like, oh, this star has put on two stone, which is quite a lot of weight, fair enough. But now it's like, ooh, this person has a bit of fat, which is not fair," Lily said in a 2009 track-by-track break down of every song on her debut album. "It's like we're ladies. We've got a bit of junk in our trunk and that's cool. That's fine. You shouldn't be scared about it."