Is there a reason for her using auto tune in her new song? Is she being ironic? It spoils a decent record.

I'd assumed it was supposed to be ironic, yes.

Worryingly Hard Out Here only entered at 9 on the UK charts and is now in freefall. True her Keane cover for John Lewis is the current no.1 which is good but that is a very exceptional release for her and I get the impression from interviews that she's not entirely happy with it.

I heard her say it was "shrill" & re-listening I think she's right. She seems to strain to reach some of the notes.
Hard Out here suits her better, the relatively poor placement might be cos of a lack of airplay due to "saucy" lyrics, plus the 2 demographics for the 2 songs might be somewhat different.

Shes a very talented lady though & Im sure her new album will be great!

I'm not at all keen on her new song, sadly. I quite like Lily Allen though, I have her first two albums.

it's a bit of a disaster really for a comeback single from such a media whore to scrape into the top 10. while a cover that was probably knocked up in an afternoon is outselling it 1500%

she's still knocking out the same music that she did 5 years ago, people have grown up since then. also going back to her routes about women and body image now that shes not in such good shape.

How do you apply autotune to someone who basically "talks" their way through songs ?

I don't get why she released "Hard Out Here" this year. Wouldn't it have made sense to wait until next year?