Robbie Williams has shared his thoughts on Lily Allen’s new album ‘West End Girl’, comparing it to “like Black Mirror meets Smash Hits”.
Arriving last month, the album was Allen’s first since 2018’s ‘No Shame’, and came after she confirmed her split from Stranger Things star David Harbour.
The two married in 2020, and news of their separation arose at the start of the year amid rumours of cheating on his part. Allen then revealed that she went into a treatment centre to deal with the “emotional turmoil”, and said that her new album was inspired by her “deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment” after a divorce.
Now, Williams has shared his love for the record – saying that he has been listening to it non-stop. He took to Instagram and shared a shirt he designed, which made a nod to the ‘West End Girl’ song ‘Madeline’. That track saw Allen construct a fictional character by the name of ‘Madeline’, who she implies had an affair with Harbour.
In his design, a simple white t-shirt is seen with “In a way, aren’t we all Madeline?” printed across the front.
In the caption, Williams wrote: “Been making a bunch of T-Shirt ideas the last few days… this ‘Madeline’ one references a track from Lily Allen’s new album. It’s been out a couple of weeks now and I think about it every day.”
“I honestly can’t remember the last time an album stole my thoughts like this. It’s like Black Mirror meets Smash Hits,” he said, making a nod to the dystopian television series by Charlie Brooker and the vintage British pop magazine. “And by that I mean; it’s insanely good, unsettling, and might have just predicted the next five years of pop culture.”
In the song ‘Madeline’, Allen reads out what appears to be a voice note from Madeline to the actor, and adds: “I can’t trust anything that comes out of your mouth / I’m not convinced that he didn’t fuck you in our house.”
The ‘LDN’ singer would then go on to make a reference to the track by dressing up as the children’s book character Madeleine for Halloween.
After the album was released, a woman named Natalie Tippett came forward claiming to be the woman in question, but Allen then insisted in an interview with The Sunday Times that ‘Madeline’ is a fictional character who is a “construct of others”.
‘West End Girl’ was given a four-star review from NME, and praised as “a sleek, smart collection that sees Allen back at her very best”.
“As you’d expect from her most ‘vulnerable’ album, there’s a lot of grief and misery across ‘West End Girl’, but it never sounds depressing,” it read. “Since ‘Smile’, Allen’s always had a knack for making devastation sound exciting.
“There’s rage behind the pulsating ‘Ruminating’ as she struggles with the realities of an open marriage, playful other woman anthem ‘Madeline’ is a dizzying cocktail of uncertainty, fury and empathy, while the gorgeous ‘Just Enough’ is as crushing as it gets, heartbreak amplified by lush strings. It feels like a much-needed purge.”
Next spring, Allen is set to head out on her first tour in seven years, where she will play ‘West End Girl’ in full at theatres across the UK. She will also be headlining Mighty Hoopla 2026 – a move which led to over 35,000 tickets being sold in just 30 minutes. Visit here to find any remaining tickets to her 2026 shows.
As for Williams, the pop icon and former Take That star is set to release his long-awaited ‘BRITPOP’ album in 2026. The record was originally set to drop in October, but was pushed back at the last minute to avoid competing with Taylor Swift on the charts.
If it does reach the top of the charts when it is released, Williams will become the first British artist to have 16 Number One albums. At time of writing, he is currently tied with The Beatles with 15 chart-topping records.
In the run-up to the album release, Williams shared a new music video for ‘Pretty Face’, which sees him travel back in time to perform on The Word in the 1990s. He has also played his smallest-ever show in London, where he performed both tracklists for his debut album and ‘BRITPOP’ in full.
In February next year, Robbie will continue to play both albums in their entirety as he heads out for his ‘Long 90’s Tour’ dates. These will see the ‘Rock DJ’ hitmaker perform at intimate venues in Glasgow, Liverpool, London and more, and you can visit here for tickets, and visit here to pre-order ‘BRITPOP’.
