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At her best, Lily Allen operates just at the edge of a crowd, slyly and snidely passing judgment from a safe distance. That sense of remove remains on Sheezus, her overdue third album, but she's no longer an observer; she's an outsider longing to be inside. Blame it on her extended hiatus. Allen lay silent for a half decade, choosing to pursue a family life instead of the pop charts, but now that she's primed for a comeback, she's ready to ruffle some feathers, baiting Kanye West with her album title, sweetening M. I. A. 's style for "Air Balloon, " and taking swipes at Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonc, Lorde, and Lady Gaga on the album's title track. The subtext is clear: Allen is no provincial pop star; she belongs in the big leagues. There are glints of Lily's satirical swagger and casual craft, but Sheezus also finds her sneering at and borrowing from modern R&B ("Silver Spoon, " "Hard Out Here") , while also finding her writing many songs about her husband, warning all other females to not give him so much as a second look ("L8 Cmmr") . The best moments come unexpectedly: "Insincerely Yours" slides along to a yacht-soul groove, "Life for Me" cleverly twists Vampire Weekend's Graceland obsessions, and although the target of an Internet troll is beneath her, the barbs on "URL Badman" are sharpened. [Sheezus was also released in a clean version. ]