{"id":197,"date":"2025-10-24T18:25:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:25:34","slug":"lily-allens-west-end-girl-is-an-unflinching-postmortem-of-her-failed-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"Lily Allen\u2019s West End Girl is an unflinching postmortem of her failed marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lily Allen just dropped her first album in 7 years, and it\u2019s brave(Picture: Joseph Okpako\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jealousy, pain, and humour;\u00a0Lily Allen<\/a>\u2019s return to the studio after seven years away is a brutal recounting of\u00a0the collapse of a marriage.<\/a><\/p>\n

No wonder Lily has \u2018no hard feelings\u2019 after her\u00a0divorce<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0David Harbour<\/a>; she\u2019s left it all in this break-up album to end all break-up albums.<\/p>\n

West End Girl<\/a>\u00a0is said to be \u2018inspired\u2019 by\u00a0personal experiences in her life\u00a0<\/a>and is autofictional \u2013 but it\u2019s unlikely her ex-husband will walk away from this release unscathed in the public eye.<\/p>\n

Payments for sex,\u00a0cheating<\/a>, lies, vasectomies,\u00a0sex addiction,<\/a>\u00a0and \u2018Madeline\u2019, Lily unleashed\u00a0five years of hurt<\/a>\u00a0in one deeply narrative album.<\/p>\n

Starting with the title track, she leads us into a dreamy state, wide-eyed and loved-up as she buys a house with this man who pushes for the white picket-fence life.<\/p>\n

However, that fairytale quickly begins to fall away, resulting in one of the most brutal album openers ever, with almost half the track taken up by a call in which her husband asks to sleep with other women.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

West End Girl details the collapse of her marriage (Picture: Murray Chalmers PR\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She divorced Stranger Things star David Harbour last year (Picture: Gregory Pace\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lily then whisks us away to\u00a0London<\/a>\u00a0with the next song, Ruminating, calling on a dance beat and vocal distortion to paint a vivid picture of someone tossing and turning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely anyone will pay much attention to the melodies with how utterly soulbaring the lyrics are, but Lily isn\u2019t giving us a one-trick pop pony here.<\/p>\n

She weaves dance, funk, and even Spanish guitar throughout the album, showing off how she has developed as an artist in the time she\u2019s been away.<\/p>\n

In one way, it\u2019s a shame her musical comeback will be so shrouded in her very public breakup, as it\u2019s unlikely any particular tracks with break free of the album as a whole.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The album brings together dance, funk and pop influences (Picture: Charlie Denis\/BMG\/PA Wire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Lily isn\u2019t new to this game. If you\u2019re going to make an album which will be plagued by your personal life, make it as pointed and savage as this.<\/p>\n

\u2018You won\u2019t love me\/ You won\u2019t leave me\/ You don\u2019t touch me\/ Still so needy,\u2019 she sings on Sleepwalking, stating there\u2019s been no romance since the wedding.<\/p>\n

Twisting the knife in, she describes being gaslit into\u00a0believing the problems were all her<\/a>\u00a0before launching into Tennis, where she discovers there is another woman.<\/p>\n

Then comes a song that left my jaw on the floor, Madeline.<\/p>\n

\u2018We had an arrangement\/ Be discreet, and don\u2019t be blatant\/ There had to be payment\/ It had to be with strangers\/ But you\u2019re not a stranger, Madeline.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

West End Girl is \u2018autofictional\u2019, drawing from her personal life (Picture: Dave Benett\/Getty Images for Perfect Magazine)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lily Allen just dropped her first album in 7 years, and it\u2019s brave(Picture: Joseph Okpako\/WireImage) Jealousy, pain, and humour;\u00a0Lily Allen\u2019s return to the studio after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/50statefeed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}