Lily Allen has made a dramatic return to music after seven years with her new album, West End Girl, an intensely personal and raw account of the collapse of her four-year marriage to actor David Harbour, amidst allegations of infidelity. The artist, whose previous works include the Mercury Prize-nominated No Shame (2018), crafted and recorded the entire project in a rapid 10-day period, capturing the immediate shock, grief, anger, and confusion surrounding the end of her relationship. While Allen acknowledged in interviews that the lyrics are not necessarily "the gospel truth," stating she "wasn't sure what was real, and what was in my head" during the emotional processing, critics have universally lauded the album. Reviews have described the record as a "jaw-dropping" and "brutal" act of "personal exorcism," praising Allen's melodic talent across songs that weave together flamenco, bossa nova, and infectious pop sounds, reports The WP Times.
The star recently told Perfect Magazine that she had continued writing since her last album, but struggled to feel "emotionally attached" to the new material, confessing that she finds it "easier to write funny things that are rooted in darkness or anger or... terminal hatred."
West End Girl successfully fuses these intense emotions with the sharp, witty storytelling that has been her signature since her 2006 debut, Alright, Still. The album's narrative initially tracks the singer's experience of falling in love and moving to New York with her two daughters, settling into "a nice little rental near a sweet little school." The first sign of discord, however, emerges when she is cast in a West End Play—a reference to her stage debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story in 2021, for which she received a Laurence Olivier nomination.
As the relationship deteriorates, Allen sings of her husband's changing demeanor, quoting his demand for her to "audition" for a role, which she dismissed as "deranged." The album details her husband's subsequent weeks-long disappearances and her reluctant acceptance of an open marriage under the condition of discretion: "He had an arrangement, be discreet and don't be blatant / There had to be payment, it had to be with strangers." The conflict culminates when the singer discovers text messages, leading her to ask, "Is it just sex or is there emotion?" In one of the most harrowing scenes depicted, the character visits an apartment her husband allegedly used for karate practice, only to find it littered with sex toys and "a shoebox full of handwritten letters from brokenhearted women.
" When the singer finally ends the marriage, she is left wounded and bewildered by his indifference, repeatedly asking, "why won't you beg for me?"
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The resolution only arrives in the final two tracks, where she resolves to move forward, particularly on the stripped-bare track, Let You W/in, singing, "I will not absorb your shame, it's you who put me through this. / I can walk out with my dignity if I lay my truth out on the table." While Allen has been careful to label some of the songs as written "in character" or as autofiction—a genre merging autobiography and fiction—her ex-husband, David Harbour, maintained a reserved stance on the break-up, telling GQ magazine he is "protective of the people and the reality of my life" and refuses to engage with "hysterical hyperbole." Critics, however, have largely focused on the lyrics' candidness, with The Independent's Hannah Ewens calling it a five-star "brutal, tell-all masterpiece" that sees Allen "seizing control of her narrative." Adrian Thrills in the Daily Mail praised the album for showcasing the artist as "artistically reinvigorated," conveying "raw emotion with sharp, pithy pop." The NME's Ali Shutler declared it a "victorious comeback" that finds Allen "at her very best," while Helen Brown in The Telegraph welcomed the "bravery of her honesty." Allen herself clarified the motivation behind the provocative material, stating to Perfect Magazine, "If what you're doing isn't provocative, what's the point? And if it's not scary, what's the point? I'm not here to be mediocre. My strength is my ability to tell a story."
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